test drive meme #2

[fernwehmods]

SCENARIOS

01. Settling In

It's been a couple of days since you have arrived and once the fatigue from that multiversal travel has been fixed there is a town that you should probably get acquainted with. At least well enough that you don't get lost every time you venture away from the inn where you are likely staying for the time being.

Down the narrow streets to the south where most newcomers first enter Gazin, the tradespeople have set up their shops. Armourers, blacksmiths, bowyers and carpenters can all be found there, as well a few shady types who cannot pass up the advantage of ripping off an unsuspecting person.

Heading east, one can find the two apothecary shops, a bakery, a herbarium, seamstress and shoemaker. There is also a medical clinic set up and is equipped to care for anything up to moderate injuries.

The northern part of town is the district that most people tend to avoid. It's smelly and dark and trouble lurks in every corner. It's hard not to get an uneasiness that feels like someone is watching you. If asked, most civilians will explain why it is called The Devil's Mouth.

In the west district, it is bright and cheerful and generally happy. Music and celebration seem to happen twice daily, every day of the week with Saturday being the loudest. During that day, the marketplace comes to life with vendors selling their fresh food or wares. In the evening, there's typically a firework show and maybe a drunken fistfight or two that ends with more drinking and some laughter. Sometimes, but not often, trouble from the northern district trickles into the west. Those slow festivities but not for long.

02. Exploring

You have heard people talk about the places beyond Gazin and now you find yourself itching to get out and see them. Be it Vasari Forest or Roselake, you and your trusty legs (or horse) plan to be gone for a week or more. One must always be cautious of the dangers while travelling, however. Bandits and rogue soldiers often cannot pass up the chance to take what isn't theirs. There are also creatures and monsters hiding in wait to curiously check you out or worse, hunt you for their next human-shaped meal.

But, that's all part of the adventure! Take someone along with you and maybe some weapons, too. Make sure one is made of silver.

03. Quest

The Druid known as Bhalris has contracted you to head into the Oren Mountains to find and pass a message along to the dwarf known as Brazmas Steelbelly. What Bhalris doesn't exactly explain is where Brazmas can be found, only giving approximate directions to a certain landmark where a series of clues will be revealed that start an interesting, though perhaps frustrating adventure.

Pay attention to the white raven and other animals along the way. They may be there to help with your journey. How do you tell them apart from the other wildlife that may or may not be dangerous? You can't.

Good luck!

04. Celebration

Impromptu parties are quite the norm in Gazin and it doesn't matter what the occasion is or who it is for. There's music, plenty of drink, dancing and good times to be had.

Let loose and have some fun!

05. Wild Card!

Want something else? Feel free to choose your own adventure or mix and match to create something completely different!

NAVIGATION

Comments

01 - crau from last time

[ostavil]

This is not a new place to Bucky. Yet again, he's stripped of every weapon except his knives and arm and yet again it looks like something from a medieval fairy tale. He knows where the apothecary is, the blacksmith, the tavern - all the essentials to life in this place.

He wonders if Merlan still has her cabin in the woods, if Cassandra still sits in dark corners of the tavern and greets people who like to hide just like him. He hopes so. Those people he'd...been fond of even if he can't truly trust anyone anymore. They'd been friendly enough and hadn't looked twice at the arm. He hopes Claire is here, who seemed to know who he was and didn't care.

After a visit to the apothecary and showing off his arm and knives to the blacksmith, he ends up in the tavern at a seat that isn't quite so in the dark. He can't exactly get drunk the way he used to (unless the alcohol hits different here) but he likes the taste of ale anyway. He sees a glimpse of someone he recognizes and nods his head to motion them over.

What's a drink, after all? There's nothing so dangerous in that.

Re: 01 - crau from last time

[darksmokerising]

"Bucky?" A very familiar face. It is him! "When did you get here?" She's so surprised, pleasantly so, that her wings unfurl and she laughs as she accidentally knocks an empty chair over.

She flick her wings back in with a soft apology and tucks herself in across from him, leaning forward.

"Are we going to have to work on that arm again?"

[ostavil]

Bucky doesn't remember the wings from last time (did he miss them?) so he gives them a look with furrowed brow.

"I think the wings are new," he says. "Tell me they're new and I didn't completely miss something that important? Because I'm losing my touch." When she mentions his arm, he looks down. It's in good shape right now but that doesn't mean it won't need maintenance later.

"Well, ya know. Sometimes it needs a tune up. Don't worry, you're still in a job."

[darksmokerising]

"Sorta new, I'm sorta new, too. I went home and came back an goddamn angel," she says, her eyebrows raised. Xue Yang took care of my horse while I was gone for what seems like two months or so. I can't go back to my universe anymore, though. God fucked it up, ended it. The wings are new and not, they look like the ones I didn't get a chance to show you."

There isn't anything she can do about that. Radical acceptance and all.

"Mm, damn good thing I have a job. You want it back to how it was when you were here? Normal looking and feeling?"

[ostavil]

It's a lot to process but, then again, Merlan was like this the first time he met her. There's just people like that, extraordinary people, and Bucky has learned to get along with most of them. Tony Stark will always be someone difficult but that's...complicated. Merlan is a less complicated Tony Stark, more like Howard, and there's a pang of regret he hadn't wanted or needed. Of all his kills, that one hurt the most.

"I would like that," he says, chancing a smile. "It was nice to feel normal for once. Normal again. I used to be normal a long time ago but I don't remember a lot of it."

He wants to, badly, but those memories are locked away.

[darksmokerising]

"Yeah, when we're done here, I can do that. Same thing as before. Stupidass world should have switched it back on or something. Ah well." Merlan was a mouth that hit fast and just dumped information. She couldn't help herself. Sometimes a gag was a good idea.

"We'll get you closer to normal. Maybe get you to stick here, mm? Missed your face."

[ostavil]

"I guess if we're saying it that way, I missed your face too," Bucky says, laughing in spite of himself. It's weird, the attachment, but what's an angel girl in a medieval village going to do to him? Nothing bad, he doesn't think. Besides, the book isn't here. No one can control him but himself.

"I would have liked if this place remembered you did all that magic for me but it seems like it forgot all of that. Dropped me back off where I started other than my memory." Which, for once, seems intact.

[darksmokerising]

"I don't mind doing it again, Bucky," she murmurs and smiles in return, glad to have been missed. "It will take less time, now, I think."

She gestures languidly.

"Yes, you do have your memory. Thank goodness and of that I am quite pleased."

[ostavil]

"Some of it, anyway. The parts that happened here," Bucky says, tapping his temple. He doesn't have all of it and doesn't think he'll ever have all of it back but there's some things he's making new memories of and that's about all he can ask for, really.

"I'd like to have the arm redone. It was nice to not see...that and just see my hand again. Even if it was just an illusion, it was a nice one to have. It made me feel like I was normal again in a small way."

[darksmokerising]

"Mm, it means you can make new memories, which is pretty fantastic," she says with a grin.

Merlan nods.

"Yeah, we'll get everything I did for you before done this time around, too. Should be easy enough. I think it was touch illusion, too, if I remember. Almost as good as new."

[ostavil]

"Touch illusion, yeah. It felt like the real thing again." Bucky barely remembers when his arm was real - everything from that era is foggy and mostly supplemented by history books and Steve - but it makes him feel like that once he was whole and happy.

"Do I have to buy you anything for you to do it? Materials or something? I didn't ask last time. I don't wanna cost money or anything and I can earn it before you do it."

[darksmokerising]

She shakes her dark head and smiles warmly.

"No materials, it's all stuff I picked up here and there, most of it's just time. So, you can have some coffee or tea, hang out, and we can do some magic. Besides, this is the stuff I live for. Magic and helping out."

Her eyebrows waggle as she lets out a laugh, which gets buried in a sip of beer. She makes it sound easy but, hell, it is now and fun. Her fingers briefly touch his hand.

"Bucky, you're a friend. It's never going to cost you anything. Ever. It's just the way it goes."

[ostavil]

It sounds like something Steve would say, actually, and Bucky's not sure he deserves it. She doesn't know all the horrible things he's done and while it's some of the beauty of this place - an anonymous life - he also doesn't think it's fair for her to think of him as a friend when he isn't really worthy of that kind of affection.

"I guess that's how friends work," Bucky says, laughing awkwardly. "But I'm sure it takes time and effort. I don't know anything about magic but learning something is not ever easy. You might take to it, sure, but you still have to put in the work."

[darksmokerising]

"That it is," she said with a nod. "And yes, it does take time and effort and definitely work that's made easier by having access to more power to draw on than I have before. But I've spent my life strengthening my skills. I'll be fine."

[ostavil]

"I'm just making sure."

Bucky doesn't like it when people do stuff for him and there's no string attached. He'd looked for the strings with Shuri and the Wakandans and there weren't any - they were happy to have him in their country and happy to help him. There aren't any strings in this, either, and it's bothersome to him. Doesn't everyone want something back?

"If you ever need anything, I can do it for you. No questions asked."

[darksmokerising]

"I know," she said softly. "Just like last time. There will be a time, I'm sure, but for now? No strings."

[ostavil]

"Well, if you're sure, then I'll accept it. But I owe you one in the future," Bucky says. He doesn't want to ever owe anyone anything, not really, but having one IOU isn't so bad.

"I appreciate what you do, anyway."

[darksmokerising]

"If that's what makes you float," she said and stuck her tongue out at him just a little. "I just call it friendship."

She drained her mug and set it on the table, leaning her chin on her hands.

"Glad you do appreciate it. It's nice to know the work you do is well received. Whenever you're ready, Bucky."

[ostavil]

"Guess it's time to go hide my old friend again," Bucky says, tapping the metal of his arm for a moment. "Glad for it, too, because it makes me feel...I don't know. Normal. And normal is a good thing to feel when you're used to being anything other than."

[darksmokerising]

She smiles and once they're outside, she links her arm through his as they wander out to where Thunder's got his nose buried in a feed bag, which she removes and stores in a saddlebag.

"Hop up, handsome," she says with a wink to Bucky and a pat to Thunder's shoulder as he shifts. "VIP treatment today. It's a little further from town than people expect. Might as well ride."

[ostavil]

"I don't think I've ever ridden a horse." Bucky doesn't remember it but that doesn't mean much; there's a lot he doesn't remember. From what he's read about himself, he'd lived in the city and there's not a lot of horseback riding in the middle of Brooklyn.

He might have ridden one while he was under as the Soldier but he has no idea if it happened. There's nothing to confirm, anyway. Still, he's strong enough to get up there and mounting a horse seems logical.

"You promise this guy isn't going to throw me off?" Does it matter, with his healing?

[backin_theworld]

This isn't Steve's first time arriving in an unknown location, though the last time it happened, it didn't look like it was straight out of a medieval fantasy book like this place did. No, Bete Noire was a great deal darker than this place and that was a relief.

His uniform and shield point out that he's yet another arrival and when he gets into Gazin and takes a better look around, it's clear the citizens don't know what to make of him exactly.

He's told to go to the inn, where he can stay and after he looks at his room and sits a moment to gather his thoughts, he heads down wondering if he'll find any familiar faces.

And he does.

Steve slides onto the chair opposite his best friend, who it feels like he's just seen. But he also knows the laws of the multiverse well enough to guess that explanations aren't usually easy.

"Man, I'm glad to see you. When did you get here? Any chance you know anything about this place?"

Even if it's just basic information.

[ostavil]

Steve. A welcome face but there's an uneasiness too, a feeling of never being good enough next to the paragon of Captain America. It wasn't always there, he thinks, but it is now because of all the blood on his hands and Steve's pristine reputation. Still, Steve had stuck his neck out for him in Bucharest and had defended him even when it got him on the bad side of a war. Steve has to believe in him even if Bucky doesn't.

There's a smile though, a quick one, and Bucky nods at his question. "I was here before. I figured it was something they were doing in Wakanda, something Shuri was doing to help patch up the holes in my memory. They thought this was a nice, blank place for me and stuck me here, you know? You being here throws a wrench in it, though. I met some people last time. One of them came from our world and knew who the Avengers were. As to when I got here this time around, seems like it's just a little while before you. I haven't been here long. Long enough to order a drink. You want one?"

[backin_theworld]

Steve listens, processes as best as he can before deciding that there was no real point in mulling over all the questions that inevitably snowball as the days wear on. Just like whatever powers that be snatched his best friend back to this place, it took him from Bete Noire and brought him here. Answers would come in time.

What he does learn right away is approximately where in their world Bucky comes from, which was about in line with where in their timeline he comes from. Still, it's a little off-putting when someone from your world is from the future. Or the past. Meeting Howard in the City was ... an experience, to say the least.

Shaking his head at the offer, Steve knows there's no point in trying to trick his brain into thinking a drink would make it all easier to accept.

"No kidding, random person who knew them? Or part of SHIELD in some way?"

[ostavil]

"Random person," Bucky says. "Her name was Claire. She knew about that shit where you were blasting aliens from the skies. I was under then so I only know what they told me afterward but it lined up. She was from New York."

It's strange that it was a random person, maybe, but there's plenty of random people all over the world. Those are the people he'd like to protect now that he's no longer under HYDRA's thumb. People like Claire who live and work every day don't need to know the Avengers on a first name basis for them to have an impact in their lives.

"Hell's Kitchen, not Brooklyn. Other than that, she was top tier."