drunkdialing | 2 >> TEST DRIVE MEME!

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playmeme: tdm

2 >> TEST DRIVE MEME!

TEST DRIVE MEME

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NETWORK

So you've just found your CALL device and you're not quite ready to see what hitting the [TRANSPORT] button does. Instead, you start looking around on the messaging apps to see who you can talk to: the HERO Network for heroes, the CAD network for villains, and the CALL network if curious to see who might answer. Need advice? Want to see what other people feel about an issue? Go for it...

CITY OF NIGHTMARE

So you actually hit that [TRANSPORT] button and while you can't say that the City of Tomorrow where you started at isn't neat and all but there's just so much to explore. But as you make your way across the bridge, a sudden rainstorm begins. Through the gloom and the lightning, you can make out a single building in the distance. It's not particularly welcoming, of course, but it does at least look dry and reasonably sturdy. What could go wrong here? Hopefully, someone in there has an idea of when the rain might stop. Or... someone will come soon?

CITY OF ROMANCE

It is a singularly beautiful night out in the City of Romance, even more singularly beautiful than most of the nights there, which are usually pretty nice. The sky is clear and dark, and it's just the right temperature out for a late picnic or a night of stargazing. It appears that some enterprising soul has put out a number of blankets in the park, though there are a limited number of them so you may have to share...

CITY OF ADVENTURE

You've been in the wilds of the City here for the last few hours. Hot, sweaty, and more than a little uncomfortable given the number of mosquito, you would almost think that someone heard your silent prayers as you come through the trees and spy the most amazing looking waterfall. Obviously, you've learned that many things are not as they seem in this City and that the beautiful can hide all manner of mysteries... but damn if that pool doesn't look like it'd feel amazing to dive into.

WILDCARD!

Go wherever your heart leads you!

[questions, comments, etc. can go to

the_calling_rp or the appropriate FAQs!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's the movement that catches her eye first, followed closely by the gloriously satisfying, resounding THUNK as the metallic disk connects. It's enough to set the serpent reeling and give her time to recoil and strike with all her strength. Her blade connects with the soft flesh beneath its chin. She swings again, and again, until the head separates from the writhing coils around her, and the whole gory mess slumps around her feet.

Only then does she turn and look to see who came to her rescue.

Oh. Oh. Her bright blue eyes go wide. It's not every day one gets saved from certain death (shush) by a naked man, much less one built like that.

She gets a good look at him, mostly because he spends a moment watching the beast collapse into a heap. As soon as it's dead, properly dead, he turns his attention to her. And notices that she's, er... turned his attention to him.

...why wasn't his shield bigger?

"OH my God, Oh my-- goodness. Ma'am. Ma'am, I didn't- I was swimming and I didn't-- I wasn't-- I'm so sorry. I'm really--" and he starts scrambling towards his pack and his clothes. "Give me a moment!"

Dejah uses her left forearm to wipe the mud out of her eyes, her right hand still clenched around the hilt of her sword. Blood drips down from a puncture in her side, but she doesn't seem to even notice it.

"Don't rush on my account." Her voice is low for a woman's, and her accent is as posh as the day is long.

The blood dripping catches his attention and for a moment, the nervousness drops away until it becomes clear that she's actually all right. All the same, he's glad he has a first aid kit in his pack.

Wait, she was talking.

...goddammit.

"You all right?" he finally asks as he tugs on his pants. That's the most important, after all.

She's covered in tiny cuts, some of them days old, some of them fresh. The puncture is the only thing that might be serious. Is serious. That becomes apparent when she looks down at herself.

"I'm sure it's nothing."

And then her knees let go.

He's glad he's got his pants on. It means that he can dive at her, catch her, without feeling as if he might have done something inappropriate. But once he's got her, he has to figure out what to do with her, especially considering how far out into the City they are. He has a flare gun, of course; he'd been told it was a good idea. But he hasn't actually heard from anyone who would be responding to it.

Instead, he carries her over to his pack and gently lays her against a mound of plantlife that he'd been using as a chair of sorts. There's probably a rock under there, but there's so much green on top that it's comfy. Then he pulls out the first aid kit and, hoping she doesn't slap him for it, gets to work.

The world, bright and green with stunning blue skies and water everywhere the eye could see, dimmed a little and went black at the edges. He sweeps her up (his skin is so pale and his eyelashes are ridiculous) and it's pure instinct to put her arms around his neck.

"Knew it. Dreaming. Had to be." She's probably face down in the mud somewhere, or that bloody serpent is squeezing the life out of her.

He sets her down and turns away, and her hands reach for him.

"Don't go. Not yet."

He gives her a wry little smile that's just a little worried, given that he has no idea whether or not that snake had any kind of poison in those fangs. The fact that her blood is blue gives him some hope since he'd think that the beast's toxins would probably be designed for folks with a bit more red flowing through them but it's also worrying; he has no idea what her medical needs are, other than the obvious.

So he's going to try and smile at her and take care of the obvious.

"I'm not going anywhere," he reassures her, "you just make sure you do the same."

For such a large man, his hands are surprisingly gentle. Well, at least as he's cleaning the wound. He presses down with the bandage and she bites back a cry, her whole body tensing. Her eyes close and her head tips back. It seems like a really good time to just close her eyes and rest for a bit. He said he's not going anywhere.

"Don't tell Kantos. He'll be so upset with me." Her words blur together at the end.

"I promise I won't tell Kantos," he tells her easily enough as he keeps working. This is... not really his skill, to be honest. He knows his way around it because he'd watched his mother most of his life, and then he'd gotten a crash course in doing it himself after she'd died, both for him and for Buck. After that, though, Morita'd taken over for the most part so he's rustier than he'd like.

"Though I can see why he'd be upset with you. How'd you get that thing after you? Or don't I want to know?"

He's still talking. She shouldn't be rude. She reaches for the words and they come from a great distance away. "It fell out of a tree."

She's trained to be observant but there's so many things to see here. She didn't even see the thing until it was on top of her.

Her hand touches the back of his. "I'm sorry. I got mud all over you. And you were so clean."

He pauses at the touch, can't help but pause at the touch, and stares down at her hand on his. He swallows and gets his mind out of places it has no business being in before huffing out a bit of a frustrated sigh.

"Fell... or dived?"

"I was... I got lost. The trail disappeared, a few days ago. I was trying to pick it up again, so I wasn't. I didn't..."

She doesn't remember now. Had it been following her? Was she that far removed from the hunting trail that she forgot how not to be prey?

Her hand grips his wrist where he's pressing down, and her mouth twists in pain. "How bad is it?"

"Bad enough that we're going to have to head for civilization." He looks up and around at the clearing, as if he could see or sense any further threats. He can't and that actually worries him most of all.

That was when he turned and took her hand in his.

"Steve. My name is Steve. Steve Rogers. And I'm going to do my best to get you out of here, okay?"

She grips his hand fiercely. "Steve Rogers." She knows that name. Where does she know that name from?

"I am. Dejah Thoris." It's getting hard to breathe, but she ignores the pain and tries to find a smile. "The carcass. Get us away. From the carcass."

She fumbles at a fold in her skirts, her hand closing around a leather-wrapped notebook tied shut with a length of cord. "I saw a tree house. Not far. From here."

His eyes flicker over to the corpse of the creature before carefully pulling away. He does a quick test with his foot (which he realizes a moment later, being bare, is not his finest thought) before picking the thing up and tossing it as far into the jungle as he can. He takes a half a second to use the water from the waterfall to splash off the ichor before he makes his way over to her again.

"Got rid of it," he reports before holding up a finger and starting to scramble into his clothes again. He's still stuffing his foot into his boot as he walks over to her, his pack over his shoulder.

"We've got to get going. Before any friends show up. So I'm going to carry you and you're going to tell me where that tree house is, okay? You've got to stay awake to tell me where to go."

She watches him move, watches the ease with which he disposes of the massive serpent. He flings it with such strength, she can hear the trees breaking with the force of its landing. Her eyes go wide as he casually walks back and rinses his hands. How hard did she hit her head?

He dresses and even through the pain, she subconsciously wipes at the mud on her face.

"Yes. Yes. I can do that." She shifts and grunts as she tries to sit up. The book. The pages. She drew a map. She fumbles it open to the page she was looking for. "Up the slope. There's a thicket of trees. Tall. Looks artificial."

He nods to her, but he won't take the book. No, he wants her to keep her focus on it and talk to him, tell him where to go. He knows better than most that the second they go unconscious, it gets much much worse.

"All right, Miss Thoris, I'm gonna lift you up now. Careful, and you tell me if something hurts, all right?"

Which is when he reaches over and slowly lifts her into his arms.

She laughs, wrapping her arms around his neck. This close, he can hear her biting back any expression of pain. She's all lean muscle, built like a dancer, but she's fighting to hold onto her strength.

"I'm fine. It's just a scratch. Just need some rest."

She's just going to rest her head on his shoulder for a little while. He's so warm. Her eyes drift closed and then open again, wide.

"Dejah. Call me Dejah."

"Yeah, I've heard that before," he says, though it's almost to himself, really. 'Just a scratch', 'just a bruise', 'it's nothing, Ma', then 'it's nothing, Buck'. So this is what it feels like hearing it from this side.

No wonder they always gave him a grumpy look.

"All right, Dejah. This is definitely a little more than a scratch, but you keep positive like that, all right? We're heading out now. Heading for the tree house..."

She nods, clings a little tighter around his neck. At this angle, she can see his profile, almost count his eyelashes. She turns her head to determine where she emerged from the forest. Finding it, she tries to point.

"To the south. Not far." She looks back to him and glances up, her voice tinged with an urgency that wasn't there a moment ago.

"You're going to have to run."

There's a distant crashing in the underbrush, coming from the other side of the river. A moment later, a pack of wolves lets out a bone-chilling howl.

The words that stream out of him at this point aren't just pointless to transcribe, they're also a string of frustrated filth that could set at drill sergeant's ears aflame. The only truly important thing to note is that he apologizes every few words, because there is in fact a lady present and he tries, really he does.

But mostly, he's running.

Later, she'd laugh about it. Later, she'd tease him about it. Later, she'd reminisce about the other man she'd known both rough and well-mannered, and the strange similarities between the two of them.

Right now, she shares the sentiment wholeheartedly. Each step he takes, each foot fall is far gentler than she could possibly imagine and it still jars her wound. She tries to focus against the waves of agony twisting through her, knowing that fresh blood is flowing, leading those predators right to them.

"Up the slope. There! See the tall trees! It's there. It looked intact."

"Got it," and then he's saving his breath for running, pouring on the speed as best he can given that he has a destination in mind now. More importantly, his mind is going through vectors, force and speed and possibilities and how to get her up into the tree house and out of danger quickly.

He's almost there when he looks down at her.

"Don't panic. I'll be up soon."

Which is when he pushes down, springing his momentum into his arms to toss her up and over the edge to land at the front of the tree house. Then he's running again, one arm reaching back to pull his shield out. Because if he isn't going to put her right back into danger, he was going to have to take this thing out and quick. They'd already called enough attention to themselves.

She's been a warrior long enough to roll with the punches, but being thrown is an entirely different proposition. Still, she conserves her momentum, keeps her chin tucked and rolls as best she can. It still hurts, but she refuses to lose consciousness. She grabs for her sword.

And slaps the empty sheathe on her thigh. "Mother of us all," she curses.

Below, Steve finds himself surrounded in the half gloom. Under the canopy, sunlight struggles to reach the forest floor and the predators that hunt here use that to their advantage. Seven, no eight pairs of gold eyes stare back at him from the underbrush, their near silent pacing accompanied by quiet growls. They're still sizing him up.

2 >> TEST DRIVE MEME!

TEST DRIVE MEME

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