TEST DRIVE MEME #11

[abraxasmods]

Test Drive Meme

Welcome to the Test Drive Meme for Abraxas! This meme is run a little bit differently than most in that you'll be asked to choose one of the three different arrival scenarios below for your character to take. If you have any questions about this mechanic or anything else related to the TDM, please take a look at the questions below or ask one of your own under the Questions header below. For general game questions please still use the FAQ.

Below are some links to information you may find useful. Our Setting pages have information about the world itself as well as current events for each nation, while our Game History page outlines the game's story so far.

Setting | Game History | NPCs | Arcana
You can also find answers to questions asked on previous TDMs in their respective questions threads.

Reminder that the TDM is forward-dated to when the summonings occur in-game, at the start of April. For current players, this means all of the Summoned will have been rescued and recently returned home to their respective factions.

For prospective players, there's no need to familiarize yourself with the recent event, but prompts in the TDM may reflect the aftermath.

Summoning

You awaken suspended in the abyss, silent darkness stretching out in all directions. If you try to yell, you'll find that the sound doesn't carry. If you try to move, you'll find it's impossible to tell whether or not you're actually getting anywhere. If you reach for an item you were carrying last time you remember being awake, your hand will only touch bare skin.

You're naked and floating helplessly through the void, and what little air you have in your lungs is running out.

There's a pinprick of light that almost looks like a faraway star but as it grows it becomes clear that it's actually quite close. It's hard to make out any individual objects, as if you're looking from beneath rippling water.

A hand plunges through and you realize water is just what it is. Whether you take hold of the hand or not it will grab you and yank you up through the surface, lifting you out until you're sprawled on solid ground - still unclothed.

Arrival

You'll find yourself summoned to one of the following three major nations: the extravagant and magical Kingdom of Thorne, the bustling and advanced Free Cities, or the tightknit and faith-driven rural community of the Solvunn Commune.

If you had any powers, they feel unusually weak. Attempts to use magic or enhanced strength or powers of any sort fizzle out without any effect, but they don't feel completely gone, either. After a week or so, your abilities will return.

When you gather your bearings at last, you look up into a series of unfamiliar faces...and equally unfamiliar surroundings.

Welcome to Thorne

Set into an indent on a marble slab behind the fountain is a card bearing the image of one of the Arcana. An apprentice mage - the one whose hand lifted you out of the fountain - brushes the water off on their robes and runs back to join a group of three others, who all stare intently at another mage with highly decorated robes and a large, heavy book. The man peers up at you for a moment and starts flipping through the book.

"One moment," he says, not bothering to look up from the tome. He looks tired. "I am Ambrose Rhett, the High Mage of the Kingdom of Thorne. We’ll explain everything in a moment, but for now, please calm down. You’re completely fine."

Regardless of your response, he keeps flipping through the pages, until he stops on one specific passage, stares at it for a moment, and then nods, satisfied. "Excellent." He motions for one of the young apprentice mages over. "Settle our guest in, please. I don't have all day."

The apprentice hurries forward with a fine silk tunic, pants, and some basic sandals. With a wave of their hand, the clothes reshape to fit you perfectly. Once you're dressed, the apprentice leads you into the hallways of Castle Thorne, prattling on about the kingdom, names of royals and nobles, and, of course, the reason why you're here: the world itself is in great peril, and tales of your exploits have reached far and wide across universes. If asked about these exploits, the apprentice will simply smile and shrug. The High Mage was happy to see you and that's good enough.

◎ Surroundings

Castle Thorne is where not only royals and members of the court reside, but includes the surrounding city itself. Now in spring, the weather mild and cool. In the distance, you can see snow-covered mountain peaks that are beginning to melt, and the gardens are in bloom. The castle is enchanted to be at a comfortable temperature.

As you walk or look around, you take in some of what's going on around you:

• The North Wing, devoted to housing the Summoned, is tightly guarded against outsiders. As one of the Summoned, you're free to come and go. The guards aren't keeping anyone prisoner. They're there to protect you, and they take their jobs seriously.


• Apprentices, kitchen staff, guards - everyone seems to be bustling and busy. The air is tense, and you hear chatter of abductions and mutated victims who were only just recovered a week ago.


• The infirmary is full. Healers are in high demand. Normally, Thorne's staff put effort into welcoming new arrivals. This time, they're focused on what seems to be an influx of the wounded - including other Summoned who arrived before you.


• Despite the troubles, life in the Castle is beginning to resume. Still, you can sense that a major crisis has only just been resolved, and much of the fallout remains.

◎ Exploring

Despite the troubles that plague the land, Castle Thorne and its surrounding city have much for you to indulge in.

Care Packages
Castle staff are putting together care packages consisting of flowers, hot meals, and draughts to manage pain. Gather flowers from one of Thorne's many beautiful gardens. The gardeners will direct you if you ask, though you're welcome to gather anything that catches your eye. There's no magic in the flowers beyond their ability to brighten up someone's day.

You can put together the bouquets and care packages with a partner, as well as deliver them yourself to one of the older resting Summoned. They might be in the infirmary or in their rooms depending on their injuries. Why not stay and chat? Though you've only just met, they've evidently been through something terrible. Perhaps they could use a friend.

Magic Lessons
Regular magic lessons are held by apprentice mages as part of their training, usually involving learning to cast a small spell. These classes are for the natives of Thorne, but you're welcome to join if you wish. The spell they will be teaching is conjuring a modest defensive light shield that can protect against a single magical blow. The spell relies on Academic Magic which involves a few words said correctly. You'll likely need a few lessons to grasp it unless you're well-versed in magic already. In the meantime, the class of fresh-faced students means there's a constant bright explosion of light coming from the practice room as the spells fail. It isn't dangerous, but it can be annoying.

Forest Growth
Patches of woods in the city of Castle Thorne have suffered from dead flora. It appears to be related to some heavy magical corruption from the past several weeks. Though Thorne's deemed it too dangerous to go directly into the woods, you can help plant new saplings in square crates filled with soil and pack them onto wagons. Make sure they're secured and kept upright. These trees will be taken out into the woods later by mages to replace the withered plantlife in the forests.

Nocwich
Nocwich, which is shrouded in an eternal darkness and is home to the werewolves and the vampires, opens on the first weekend of every month for a total of 3 days. Shortly after arriving, you'll be given a pendant that allows you to travel to and from the portal. In Castle Thorne, the portal is a short walk around the back of the castle. While Nocwich is normally thriving, no shops are open in Oleuni Square. Nocwich citizens explain that unforeseen circumstances prevent the market from opening as usual and request you return next month to explore. However, you can stay to help. Tents, tables, and medical supplies around the Square need to be taken down and packed up. You can guess that this was once a site for heavy rescue operations and emergency treatment.

◎ Settling In

When you're ready to rest, you're shown to the North Wing, which has been set up as living quarters for you and your fellow newcomers. There are four people to a room, but each generously-sized bed has opaque curtains that can be drawn around it. You can meet your roommates here and discuss your shared situation (those who were previously brought in may have a great deal of information to tell you).

Although you can leave the castle, you can't leave its surrounding city with the exception of entering Nott via portal in order to assist with rebuilding or visiting Nocwich. Borders are especially well-guarded right now due to the recent attacks. Besides, Castle Thorne gives you everything you need: fine clothes, great food and wine, massive libraries, and all the magic and knowledge you could want. Isn't that plenty? You won't be given money as you're provided for, so if you want to do some personal spending later, you'll have to find a job in the city on your own.

Welcome to the Free Cities

Dry warmth hits you at once as you're set on a hard floor of dull ruddy stone. Men and women in unfamiliar uniforms of brown and red leather stand in a semi-circle around a small pool of water - the very pool you were just pulled from. The water is still now, rimmed in pale gold tiles with odd symbols etched into them. Across it is a raised pedestal with a card bearing an Arcana symbol.

A guard covers you with a simple robe and returns to their place in the semi-circle. Before you stands another woman, dressed in a more elaborate and decorated uniform than the others. A sword rests at her hip. She carries an air of authority as she approaches you with a nod and a warm smile. "Sorry about the circumstances. Take a minute, catch your breath. I'm Prime Minister Marlo Reiner and you're in The Free Cities. That nice lady over there will explain everything to you and get you settled."

A robed mage off to the side approaches to help you up. She brings you out of the cave through a corridor that angles upwards until you emerge in what looks like some kind of storage facility. You'll learn you're in the Cadens Desert Outpost 003, a military base on the outskirts of the major city of Cadens. You're told the world is in delicate and dangerous times, and you're needed to help. You're important and they're very grateful you're here.

◎ Surroundings

While you're currently at the outpost just outside of the city proper, Cadens on the whole is a large bustling city. Temperatures are rising, and the climate is hot and dry, though still pleasant - during the day, at least. At night, they'll cool rapidly. Desert blooms dot the landscape for the spring. Look to the west and you'll see a long stretch of desert wasteland. This is the infamous Badlands. The soldiers don't recommend going out there unprepared - you're likely to face a slow death to the elements or be eaten. Reaching Cadens is possible by wagon, a trip of about 2 hours each way. You're asked to return by sundown for your own safety... but no one will chase after you if you don't.

You'll be given a military style uniform with your Arcana stitched on it where a formal rank would normally be. As you walk or look around, you take in some of what's going on around you:

• Libertas shows signs of having suffered a devastating attack, but a good portion of it is rebuilt including a new garden park memorial that commemorates the lives lost. Chatter has shifted from the fire attacks to the abductions and failed experiments recovered only a week ago.


• From Cadens to Aquila to Libertas, the streets are heavily guarded. Soldiers patrol all areas, especially those typically occupied by the Summoned. This includes a particular inn and tavern in the heart of Cadens - The Sarstina - where the Summoned like you are often found...though it may not be as busy and thriving as it normally is.


• Instead, many of the older Summoned are either resting in their homes or recovering in Cadens' largest hospital. Doctors are busy, and the hospital is heavily guarded, too.


• Despite the troubles, life around the Free Cities is beginning to resume. Still, you can sense that a major crisis has only just been resolved, and much of the fallout remains.

◎ Exploring

Despite the troubles that plague the land, the barracks and Cadens have much for you to indulge in.

Training Grounds
Non-lethal training weapons and obstacle courses are set up for anyone to use. The soldiers will be watching, and if you catch their attention they might approach you and encourage you to enlist. You're free to invite other new arrivals to spar, but be sure to keep things friendly and avoid trouble. Discipline is key in the barracks. If you're especially competitive, the soldiers will sometimes hold impromptu obstacle races with informal wagers made. They'll be happy to race against even the most unlikely of opponents, and you'll be judged more on your spirit rather than your skill. If you really impress them, they'll even buy you a drink.

Supply Delivery
The Summoned are important to the Free Cities. The government means to take care of them through their recovery, and have instructed the military to assist. Soldiers are packing rations, medicine, and other supplies into crates to be delivered to the hospital in Cadens. You can help pack or make the deliveries yourself by hopping on the wagon. Though you aren't supposed to wander around the hospital, as one of the Summoned you have a bit more freedom than the average citizen. Maybe you could visit one of the rooms while you're there? Or you might run into a Summoned in the halls arriving to check on a friend.

Furry Friends
Researchers in Cadens have been studying the positive effects of animal companions on those who recently went through traumatic experiences. They've settled on the catlike Leosylph, a popular domestic breed, as the best choice. You can help bring these animals to anyone who would like one in the hospitals, or you can simply play with them and make sure they're fed while they're awaiting their assignments. They enjoy chasing mechanical mice powered by New Magic and purr when happy.

Nocwich
Nocwich, which is shrouded in an eternal darkness and is home to the werewolves and the vampires, opens on the first weekend of every month for a total of 3 days. Shortly after arriving, you'll be given a pendant that allows you to travel to and from the portal. In Cadens, the portal is a short walk away from the center of the city. While Nocwich is normally thriving, no shops are open in Oleuni Square. Nocwich citizens explain that unforeseen circumstances prevent the market from opening as usual and request you return next month to explore. However, you can stay to help. Tents, tables, and medical supplies around the Square need to be taken down and packed up. You can guess that this was once a site for heavy rescue operations and emergency treatment.

◎ Settling In

When you're ready to turn in, the barracks are waiting for you. They have a communal bathing room at the end of the hall, with curtains that can be pulled around the individual raised round tubs for privacy. Each barracks room is rather sparse. Six simple beds set against the wall, three on each side of the room, each with a trunk at the foot of it. You can greet your roommates here, most of whom will be new arrivals, as well.

If you plan on making use of your assigned quarters, you'll have your basic needs met: uniforms, a roof, bland food from the mess hall, and access to the training grounds. You won't be paid unless you formally enlist with the army. The longer you take advantage of the barracks, the greater the pressure to enlist. Some soldiers will start to see you as a freeloader if you refuse to join them yet continue to use their resources. If you're set on not enlisting, you can always strike out on your own in Cadens - but you won't be provided for and handouts are rare. You'll have to work to earn every copper and loaf of bread. Whether that's honest work is up to you.

Welcome to Solvunn

You're in a grassy clearing in the midst of a circle of large stone slabs stacked to look like doorways. In the middle is the same glimmering pool you were just pulled from. An elderly mage stands before an ornate altar. He holds an old leather-bound book in one hand and in the other is a card bearing an arcana symbol. "I detect no ill will from the gods," he says. "It seems we've been blessed with success."

Those that had gathered all breathe a sigh of relief and now seem pleased. One offers you some clothes of leather and knitted wool that seem to fit you perfectly. A rough-looking man steps forward once you're dressed and motions with his head outside of the stone circle. His speech is informal, his consonants harsh.

"Hold your horses, I can see all those questions coming about! Rowan March, at your service. I'm one of the council members of Solvunn. There's a lot to discuss, but it's best talked about over a hot meal." He leads you to a horse-drawn carriage and helps you up into the back. He talks the entire ride to the center of the Primary Settlement. You're told that the world hangs upon the brink of disaster and that there are those in this world that are happy to see it fall to ruin with their meddling.

You're important. The gods have graced them with your presence. They're delighted you're here.

◎ Surroundings

The Primary Settlement is full of greenery, blessed with the fresh ocean breeze. Winds are pleasantly cool with the occasional heavy spring rains that soak the farmlands. The scent of wildflowers fills the air. The shops, farms, and homes around you are all modest and unassuming. You get the sense that the people here prefer to blend in with their neighbors than stand out.

As you walk or look around, you'll be greeted warmly, even eagerly...though there's an edge of awestruck nervousness to some. Though the settlement is often quiet and calm, there's still plenty to take in:

• Shops and stalls in Solvunn are temporarily closed. Many of Solvunn's residents have instead dedicated their time to helping the rescued Summoned. They're reluctant to speak of the recent abductions, stating that what happened was blasphemous to the Old Gods.


• Solvunn Elders will accompany anyone who strays too far from the Settlements, and will give you protective charms to make sure you're safe. You're advised to stay close to the commune where possible.


• Shrines around the settlements are overflowing with offerings. It seems something has happened recently that's made the locals especially dedicated to showing their devotion.


• You're free to venture towards the ocean if you like, though heed the warnings of leviathans. These beasts do not stir near the shores, but if you look closely in the far distance - at night in particular - you'll see the water's surface bubble and roil beneath the moonlight.

◎ Exploring

Despite the troubles that plague the commune, the commune and its settlements have much for you to indulge in.

Warding Homes
In order to aid recovery, commune Elders have asked for your help to ward the doors of homes occupied by the Summoned. Many of these homes are in housing provided by the Council or with host families in the settlement. You can hang bone wreathes on the doors to request blessings of protection and healing from the Old Gods. You can also bring hot meals and herbal medicine to the Summoned while you're there. Host families are friendly, and will welcome you in as long as the Summoned inside are willing to receive you, as well.

Shrine Offerings
As a new arrival, you'll be encouraged to perform your first offering. This can be anything that feels right to you: fruit, wine, flowers, even an animal you've hunted. Whatever you choose, it must be retrieved by your own hand meaning you must pick the fruit, cut the flowers, or pour the wine yourself. You can travel to the shrine by yourself or with a companion. Once there, lay your offering and ask for a blessing through Solvunn's tradition of High Magic. Blessings are often made for the commune overall such as abundant crops or good weather. You will not see the effects right away, but you may find over the next day or so that the sun has cut through the rain. Of course, you're free to dismiss this as the nature of how weather works...but don't be too loud about it. Solvunn takes its beliefs very seriously.

Goat Herding
Due to the circumstances, Solvunn's traditional chaotic goat races will not be happening this month. This means the goats are filled with pent-up energy. Ornery and mischievous, they'll headbutt anything that moves, chew fence posts and clothes, and generally make a nuisance of themselves - some even escaping their pens. Exasperated farmers and herders are struggling. You can help retrieve escaped goats, repair broken fences, and do your best to contain the animals.

Nocwich
Nocwich, which is shrouded in an eternal darkness and is home to the werewolves and the vampires, opens on the first weekend of every month for a total of 3 days. Shortly after arriving, you'll be given a pendant that allows you to travel to and from the portal. In Solvunn, the portal is a short walk away. While Nocwich is normally thriving, no shops are open in Oleuni Square. Nocwich citizens explain that unforeseen circumstances prevent the market from opening as usual and request you return next month to explore. However, you can stay to help. Tents, tables, and medical supplies around the Square need to be taken down and packed up. You can guess that this was once a site for heavy rescue operations and emergency treatment.

◎ Settling In

When you're ready for your bed, you're brought to the center of town and escorted to an apartment above one of the establishments in town. The living conditions are temporary if you'd like them to be: the local families would also be happy to host you in their home. In return, you'll be expected to contribute to their household, taking upon daily chores and repairs. While money has its uses, many establishments and craftsmen are happy to barter with your time or skill for their goods. You'll find your willingness to trade and your friendliness with the natives more valuable than gold.

You can even leave for the other two settlements if you like, but you're encouraged to remain in the Primary Settlement. Just be sure you have an invitation to the Secondary Settlement. There are tales of travelers visiting the secondary settlement without invitation disappearing without a trace. The gods are as hungry as they are protective.

Questions and Answers

If after reading these you're still unsure about anything, or your question wasn't covered, please feel free to hit up our Questions thread below!

How many slots are open?

Please check the Taken page for how many player, franchise, and canon slots are available. Activity check will be processed before applications open, so the count may change between now and then. Existing players can apply for a second character without restriction.

How do I choose a scenario for my character?

Pick whichever situation appeals to you most. Which faction your character is drawn into has nothing to do with their personal morality, beliefs, or how highly they regard themselves and their own accomplishments. Anyone can be put into any one of the situations.

What happens if my character refuses to comply with the NPCs?

They will be forgiven for their moment of panic or anger if they have one, and the faction leaders will try to calm them and persuade them further. If they put up too much of a fight and/or start actively attacking anyone, they will be warned once that everyone is willing to put them back in the well where they came from (see below), and if they continue to fight they will make good on that promise.

My character intends on causing a lot of trouble (destroying parts of the cities, murdering the NPCs, etc.), what would happen to them?

Characters who make too much trouble for the mages and other NPCs would be thrown back in the well (which will mean drowning in the void, not returning home). Brawling with other PCs and causing minor damage is fine and will be greeted with a cranky attitude and intervention from various NPC guards, and there will be plenty of opportunity for destruction and murder later, but for now the Abraxans have no desire to keep huge liabilities around.

Is the power loss for characters permanent?

No, but it does take a week or so for their powers to be back in full, and certain powers (determined on a case-by-case basis) may require nerfs. If your character has world-breaking powers, please discuss with the mods what modifications may be necessary.

Can my character leave the bounds of the nation?

In Thorne, characters can leave the castle but not the city. In the Free Cities, they can take a trip from the outpost to the nearest main city, Cadens. In Solvunn, they can explore the entirety of the Primary Settlement.

Can my character eventually change nations or kingdoms?

Yes, but tensions between the major nations are at an all-time high. Doing so is possible, but will require some plotting and discussion with the mods once you're in-game!

How much will my choice of scenario affect my character's plot later on?

This choice will determine where your character initially lives as well as the bias of the information they receive from NPCs (although other PCs can and most likely will give it to them a bit more straight). It will also affect your character's day-to-day life and development. Characters who seek technological advancements or combat will find more of it in the Free Cities while those keen on court politics and learning magic will have the most access to it in Thorne. Anyone who wishes to uncover the secrets of the Old Gods and forest mysteries will best do so in Solvunn.

This is not to say characters can't do these things from another faction - with effort and the help of friends, anything is possible! Don't get too anxious about your choice. This is just one of many, and every character in each scenario can work their way towards many individual goals and outcomes. Additionally, once in-game the Horizon will provide characters with a way to easily find cross-faction CR.

Are TDM threads mandatory for my application?

No, you may use other samples, but we encourage you to post to the TDM and get a feel for this game and its mechanics before you join. If you do not have a TDM thread you will still need to choose one of the three scenarios on your application.

What if I haven't settled on a sign yet?

Your Arcana sign won't have an immediate impact on your character beyond them seeing it on themselves or being told what it is by the locals. You're welcome to disregard those aspects in your prompts or try out different signs.

Can my character go to the Horizon?

First time visitors to the Horizon must be taken there by other characters, through either shared meditation or a physical journey to the Singularity, and all first-timers experience memory loss. For the purposes of the TDM, we suggest against using the Horizon.

If you're interested in threading with characters outside your borders on the TDM, you can utilize the Nocwich prompt which will allow all characters to meet in person regardless of arrival scenario.

What about making use of the network?

Much like Horizon they would need to be introduced to it by another PC, as no NPCs would be aware of the network or be able to access it. Because of this, we would advise against using this mechanic for TDM top-levels.

Can I try out more than one arrival scenario on the same TDM?

Yes, although only threads taking place in the arrival scenario you formally choose upon applying can count as canon. However, you're welcome to try out as many as you like on the TDM.

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Comments

[the_keeper]

That...is an excellent question.

One Sabine doesn't entirely have the answer for (or its the right answer for? Has she ever?), and honestly, no need for either. There were subjective qualities to specific definitions of the word that have never applied, and some others that didn't again recently, and ... it didn't matter. It didn't at all.

Because Jack's eyes were filling with tears, and that expression was all cracks.
It's where the real broken glass is. Broken glass and shattered walls.
Doors that were closed so hard they grew bricks and briars.

There's fear more than anything else;
in the cracks of his whisper.

A need not to even hope.
Self-preservation.

Sabine's expression softens, saddens, contending with the want to pull him close and take it away, and she holds out a hand. Pale fingers in the air, with wiggle just a little to make sure he happened to look at them and not just look through her as though if he moved his eyes from her face, she would vanish away entirely.

But then she changes her mind. She stepped closer and slipped her fingers into his so he didn't have to take the chance on it first. "We should sit down."

Out of the way of the mess all around them.

Sabine looked away to the nurse, one of many who were relatively familiar faces,
if not well known, not far from Jack. "I'm going to borrow Jack here for a minute."

She almost promised to return him. But she ate the lie instead.
And just stepped away, tugging him gently to follow her.

[stations]

It's not very easy to shock him. He's seen... a lot. He's seen more than most people, even ones steeped in the supernatural. He's seen some fucked up shit even when held in comparison to the rest of the Summoned, all of whom have been pulled into an entirely new world.

It's hard to stagger him, but if anybody could...

She does it when she threads her fingers through his, and he can feel it. His heart gives a sharp, painful lurch. It rends him from sternum to stomach. He nearly chokes.

He's seen her since her coma — in dreams, in visions, in hallucinations. He's seen her mainly when his mind is altered, his consciousness dulled and dampened by drugs, by alcohol, by sleeplessness. He's stone-cold sober now, he's as well rested as he ever gets, there's nothing to mute this. Nothing to turn her into a dreamlike, hazy wonder.

There's just the jagged edges of harsh reality, and her palms, soft as he remembers.

He follows like a well-trained dog on a lead, slow steps crunching on glass, then stone, then grass. Stunned into silence, and afraid that the first indication of resistance might somehow ruin- whatever this is.

"Why- how... How are you here? Is it- am I dead?"

[the_keeper]

It's almost too easy. She'd like to take that as a compliment, as a trust unshakable, but she knows it's a shock just this side of obeying so as not to break the glass bubble around it. Her. But Jack's mind isn't something to be rushed, and if he's been through what all the others have, that's even more true now. So she doesn't, and she lets him start.

"No." There's almost a tiny laugh, the word that comes out first when he skips from asking about her to asking suddenly about himself. (It's going to take so much more than another predatory universe to take Jack Townsend down. She'd see to that if she had to, too.) But. Worst case scenarios. Likening her to a ghost, gone beyond the pale and waiting for him on the other side of that other door. The type she wasn't during the last week either. As though the one could stall her from the other.

Though it does jostle something else free. Because Jack isn't dead, and Jack is here, which means Jack isn't back home. And that means the Gas Station (— is a problem to think about a little later than now). She picks the closest bench to their exit point.

"I woke up in a foundation." Which, at least thankfully, is the truth on multiple levels so far as she knows at this point. Sabine tilted her head, turning sideways and facing him rather than forward. "I'm assuming you did, too, when you first got here?"

[stations]

Oh, no.

The way she answers is... possible. It's a logical, reasonable, possible thing that could happen. She came through the same way he did, the same way Jerry did, the same way every other Summoned here did. He knows- he knows about timelines, and about how these people snatch fucking... superheroes and celebrities and fictional characters, they snatch from the past and the present and the future, they snatch from alternate realities.

It just- it never occurred to him-

It seemed impossible, like she was somehow untouchable. Like she was locked away beyond anyone's reach, including theirs. He never actually considered that they might-

Wow, somebody's breathing really fast.

Oh shit, is that him? Is that his breathing? Is he hyperventilating?

He doesn't sit down. He can't sit down, he's flooded suddenly with too much energy, something building up, something kinetic, he's-

She's-

"You're alive." From a certain angle, it might almost sound like an accusation. "You're- you're alive, aren't you? You're here. You're really here? Tell me you're real. Tell me- that this isn't just something supernatural fucking with me, because if I get my hopes up and this turns out to be some- singularity fuckery, I swear to god, I will burn this entire place to the ground."

[the_keeper]

"Hey." It starts as a single word. But it turns into many all repeating that word (hey, hey, hey), raising her second hand, because Jack's brain, whatever it does, is doing, sprints him off toward what's starting to sound like a hyperventilating. Or a panic attack. Either one or something else nearby. Whatever else might be? She's losing sight of things that aren't him; they slide out even when they try to stomp in.

There's no stopping it, though, and by the time he's out to words, they're so much louder than that whisper. It's redlining toward hope, with the throttle violently accusative and threatening, and it only makes her heart ache harder, makes her move faster. Having to let go of his hand and reach out for his shoulders. The defense of her memory doesn't go unnoticed, but she's not the person he needs to threaten to kill to keep it.

"I'm here. I'm really here." A hand to the side of his neck, but it's more of a directive and not a caress, to try to draw him closer, make him focus down rather than explode out. "Alive. Real." Whatever either of them means. "Breathe." They don't matter. They mean whatever Jack needs them to. (It means she has him with her, and how many things would she have foresworn for just that in these last five years.)

"The big shiny rock in the middle of this place didn't make me."

A tiny beat. "It's definitely not that cool."

Another. "And I will not forgive you if you tell me you've started worshiping it like some people here." None of it is serious, nor does it pretend to be in more than the words put out; it's just her mouth making sounds now and giving them to him. Herself, to him. To hold on to rather than every other fact that has so much more right to be there in his head than she does here, inches from him.

[stations]

Her hands are on his shoulders. On the side of his neck.

He doesn't like to be touched, generally speaking. He never has, because in his experience for as long as he can remember, touch was never positive. Touch never felt good until her, and it never felt good after her. If it were any stranger on the street, any random nurse or too-handsy well-wisher, he'd have instinctively shrugged it off. He'd have felt that awkward discomfort instantly and moved to rectify it.

Her touch feels familiar. His body recognizes it. There's no strange, no awkward, no distance. There's only comfort, and then a kind of need — touch starved, because she hasn't been around to meet the quota and nobody ever took her place.

It works. He focuses down. He reels in instead of expanding out, and is honed.

"Sabine," he manages for the first time, and then all that stubborn, frightened, defiant willpower breaks.

He folds around her, drags her in. Less an embrace, more burying himself into the side of her neck and hanging on for dear life.

She feels the same. She smells the same. Her skin smells like her skin, and he forgot what that was until now. She's solid beneath his hands, solid in his arms. She fits almost the same — though he's thinner, he's also put on some muscle, so it nearly evens out. She feels right.

It's her, it's her, it's her-

There are things he's wanted to say to her for years, too many to fit into a single conversation let alone a single moment, but god damn if they don't all try at once anyway. They come rushing out in the form of word-vomit, broken, frayed at the seams as the fabric of her shirt goes wet with ugly tears he will totally refuse to admit to later.

"I'm sorry, I'm such a fucking asshole, I didn't mean to, I swear, I can't believe you're here- you were right- you've been asleep for six years- also, I don't give a shit about that rock, holy fuck, I'm so fucking sorry, and you weren't supposed to leave without me, you were gone, and I-" A beat, and then he reels back when the next horrible realization pings a reminder in his brain. "Your parents. I have to tell you about your parents. I-"

Yeah, maybe that order to breathe would come in handy right now, because he's feeling suddenly light-headed and a little less than concretely stable on his one and a half shitty legs.

[the_keeper]

He says her name. Once.
Like a bell ringing. Like a sigh.

It's a thousand different sparks somewhere else, fingers gentling against his neck, relaxing a fraction into the pause before he crashes into her, and she lets him. She's not even surprised. Maybe she'd even half wanted something like this a week ago when distorted dream logic and the blurriness of drugs and dysphoria, the continual patience to wait for his waking mind to remember it, made it all too easy to shave off some of the serial numbers on any kind of reunion. That she'd waited so long, and she'd go right on waiting if it was in her power to help keep him safe.

And all of them, so short, barely handfuls of minutes in each one.
Maybe only until about now, when she'd had to send him back each time.

Maybe this is what she'd wanted that whole time, when the time, the world, the universe, and the darkness coming for everyone, always had to come first. The total length of him caught up in clutching her to his body and burying into hers simultaneously, all of his words pouring out against her skin. She hugged him back just as hard, momentarily stilled by the solid reality of him, of his voice not stopping, of having the moment to hang on, desperately to what had been so brutally ripped away for so long.

Jack's voice is a speed-laden litany of apologies she's not sure she ever needed and still wants to pull from the air and collect like fireflies in a jar. Trap the jar in her chest, and protect each one. Tuck them in with six years of reckless, desperate wishes—something so connected not even flesh could sever it—manifested completely differently, and still all but forgotten entirely.

"Hey, hey, shhh, shh—" Sabine says quietly, her face tucked up against what she can reach from the side of his face—mostly talking into his hair and part of his ear. Hand stroking his back. "That still doesn't sound a whole lot like breathing either."

Problematically, it also doesn't sound ... right.

All of it adds up. She knows the things he's talking about; she's pretty sure. But then, it doesn't continue. He's not saying anything about where he was or how they stopped. Everything he says has nothing to do with what they'd been doing last.

[stations]

Somebody's crying. Probably the same person that was hyperventilating earlier. God, that guy needs to get it together, it's starting to get embarrassing.

Wait, shit. It's still him.

That still doesn't sound a whole lot like breathing either.

He pulls in a ragged, deliberate inhale. It feels like his chest is caving, or over-full. It feels like bruised ribs. Which... in hindsight, he might actually have, considering the past few weeks. It's worth it, though — every ache in his body, every twinge from the way he's folded around her, the struggle to breathe. All of it's worth it for this.

Six. Fucking. Years.

It strikes him again, the disbelief. The utter incredulity. The impossibility of her reality, and the shocking truth that she exists.

She exists, she exists, she exists. Real. Solid. There. Still there. Still there.

He pulls back to look at her again, eyes wet and wide and lost.

And then presses his lips to hers abruptly, in the least graceful kiss he can remember ever giving. Not that he's given many in the last half a decade.

(None. He's given none.)

[the_keeper]

If Sabine had a plan, a railing, anything, the whole thing is splintering apart because as much of her wants to hold on to some control for him, no part wants to hold herself apart from him. When Jack is crying into her shoulder, and the breath he pulls in has the same jagged edges as his tears, as the miasma of words before it, as the look in his eyes when he pulls back and stares at her—

a well of darkness in the eyes she knows better than her own
—and then he pushes back in, and it's a collision of lips, teeth, and noses, and Sabine feels the bubble in her blood, in the back of her head, that would be a laugh if her mouth weren't already busy. Graceless is fine. Messy is fine. Because the only thought that hits with the impact is that there's a jarring r e a l i t y to it.

Stubble and wetness on his cheek under the hand that's moved from his neck to there, and this? This is real. Not a memory she's taken from their childhood. From the smallest of tattered scraps of a dream remembered. It's not out of place—no part of it—Stolen. Changed. Rewritten. Taken without any shared understanding and only her own iron faith he'd be able to find it. The discrepancy. (Her.)

Sabine pushes on her toes and pulls him into her even harder. Letting everything else fall, and fall, and fall, like all that broken glass and water (and memories) they left behind. Gives herself to just this. The one thing she's wanted most in so many years—the only one.

[stations]

How do you say something like after I lost you I shut down and became an empty vessel of depression and waiting to die became my entire personality to somebody in a way that isn't fucking awful? He could probably find a way, if he sat down for a while with a keyboard or a pen. He's a writer. Not to toot his own horn, but when he tries, he can be pretty fucking poetic.

But he doesn't have a keyboard, he doesn't have a typewriter, he doesn't have a pen. He wants to tell her now, but he doesn't want to say the words. He's communicating it the next best way: with his lips, but silently.

He will never know if he's a good kisser, but he did get good at kissing her specifically.

(Only her. Only ever her.)

Maybe she understands, or maybe she already knew and she didn't need him to tell her. He's not sure. She's always been good at reading him — he used to take that for granted. He got too accustomed to somebody seeing through his muted affect, knowing him without him needing to say it, this late in life his brain forgets not everybody else can.

Which doesn't actually matter anymore, because she's back, she can. She can speak him fluently, she's the only person alive that can translate for the rest of the world.

Maybe that means-- maybe now things will get better.

I missed you so much.

She pushes onto her toes, she pulls him in; he wraps his arms around her waist, lets everything else fall-

Wait, fuck, oh shit, no, that's them falling. He totally forgot how weak he still is physically from the pit; his bad leg wobbles, his prosthetic clumsy, and he breaks away from her mouth just in time to say, "Shitfuckcrap-"

And then they're both sprawled on the grass.

Blithely, it occurs to him that this is not as sexy or as romantic as it probably would be in movies.

From the flat of his back, he turns his head to look at her.

"So, um... this is probably a good time to mention that I got slightly incredibly fucked up for... a few weeks in a monster pit full of mushrooms and bone serpents, and I'm, like, barely functionally managing my own body weight. When we replay this memory later, can we pretend I didn't immediately drop you?"

[the_keeper]

Alarm gets only the briefest shoutout of Jack pulling back from her swearing—definitely in a way that wasn't expected—before Sabine is, in fact, falling sideways, still half tangled up with Jack, letting out at least one yelp at the bottom, and that's definitely the sky above them, and there's grass introducing itself to her ear and arm and pretty much half of the rest of her.

Her cheeks are pinkening up a storm, turning her freckles into deeper contrast, and it's harder to say if that's blushing or amusement or if they are two sides of the same thing. But it makes the first response entirely pert as Sabine pushes up on an arm. "Nope."

Less like sympathy
or accusation.

More like childishly
conspiratorial bragging.

Her eyes are bright with it. Honestly, they've been so many flavors of disaster along the winding way of their years, and this is probably one of the best kinds. Both of them forgetting to think entirely, because all they could think about was each other. All of it suffused with feeling stupidly down to her toes lighter that she wasn't the only one (wasn't alone) being an idiot if they had the chance to blunder straight into it.

No, she's going to prize this entirely for what it is, as it is.

"But maybe the next time we try that, we make sure you're sitting." Beat. "Or there's a wall. Or that you're not—" She gives a wave of her hand, pushing herself to sit with the other. "—all of that." Sabine paused, with a tilted head, abjectly unaware of the green grass caught up in the curls of her hair now, sobering in a way that reflected the number of times they'd found themselves in these situations, too. The hospital ones.

"How important is the checkup I just dragged you away from? Do you need to go back first?"

[stations]

Hate to break it to you, he thinks cynically, but I'm pretty much always all of this.

It is the first time, but far from the last, that Jack will doubt himself physically in regards to Sabine and his appeal to her. He will very quickly be forced to acknowledge all the ways he's changed, how much worse he looks than he did the last time she saw him. Older, thinner, fewer limbs. It'll come up later, whenever sitting, or there's a wall comes into play.

"It's not important. Like, at all. I'm great. I feel great. Everything's great. What leg? Can I take you to my room, please?"

This has been magical and all, but he would like to not cry in public anymore at least for the rest of the day.

[the_keeper]

"Liar."

It's quiet, and her smile sticks, softer because she knows all too well what it looks like when Jack shouldn't be left to his own devices. If he'd looked like that inside the hospital—she'd like to say she would have thought about it before now. Except she would have, wouldn't she? That's what the whole of the last few weeks lined deeper than these new bones.

"But, yes. I think that would be a good plan at this point."

Sabine pushed herself up the rest of the way, brushing off her clothes from the dirt and grass. Once done, she held out a hand for him, though there was the open, curious question across her expressions of whether he needed or wanted it. "Remember. No running leaps this time."