NOTE: The locations in this test drive are placeholders and do not fit with current game events. Due to ongoing changes as we shift to arc 3, contents of this test drive as they related to specific areas or activities are unfortunately not able to be incorporated as game canon, though if it is possible for a particular thread, you may assume conversations took place similarly in a different setting once the changeover happens ICly. Test drive threads may of course still be used for application samples!

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Ingress travel can be disorienting, but there’s no need to worry! All side effects are temporary and lessen with each trip. Your body may experience several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You may have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. You notice that the area you are in is filled with a soft cerulean light and feels slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you. Regardless of your current state, however, the stress of initial Ingress travel forces your body into unconsciousness.

Waking up is another story. Or maybe it isn’t.

You find yourself in a nondescript room; sometimes with others who have found themselves in the same situation, sometimes alone. A robotic medical tech is always present to explain what’s happened in a rote fashion, though his programming does not permit him to answer specific questions. He provides some clothing, a TAB, and a guide that explains the basics of Ingress travel and why you are here. Outside the room, you'll find you're on a space station that is staffed only by other robots; the only other organics there are those who recently arrived with you, or perhaps your predecessors, who are strolling the halls in search of an observation deck or the tech they've been sent here to fix. Why not introduce yourself and say hello?

phanos

* The planet Phanos is not as it was during the last visit there. Storms of dark energy swirl across the sections of the world, though they do not yet overwhelm it. The temperature is cooler now, but sandstorms still kick up with great frequency, making cooperation an important part of survival as groups make their way across the landscape, investigating the changes. The pyramid forest remains, but the griffins who live there now venture farther down from their nests, and around a third of them have been twisted by the storms' energies into even more aggressive, monstrous versions of what they once were. Do not take one on alone, or it may be your last mistake.

* Inside one of the tallest pyramids, the lab remains intact, and rumors speak of a locked chamber in its heart that contains valuable material—but is that in the technological sense, or does it hold something monetarily precious in the right market? Maybe you don't care and you're just nosy. Either way, the vault is sealed away behind a series of complicated sliding puzzles that have just one catch—they are not possible to solve without two people operating the locking station. Are you here with a friend? If not, better hope the next guy to come along has a sharp mind for this stuff.

OUT OF CHARACTER INFO

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It isn't, because it never is. Matt has stopped looking for his father, for Shiro, has trained his mind not to think about the possibilities, his eyes not to scan crowds for familiar faces, his ears for familiar voices. It never is. It never will be. Thinking too much about it distracts from the immediate need.

Which, right now, is the puzzle. Matt keeps angled away, careful even now, careful for sudden movements. The newcomer is smaller than him, but that doesn't mean anything. You don't have to be big to fight well.]

Well, this panel needs to be depressed while that one needs to be manipulated counterclockwise thrice so that one can rise up and be put over there. At the same time. Haven't been able to do that yet, so it's anyone's guess what's next.

[She's biting her lip now, because she just can't get over it. This guy sounds so much like her brother. Or- oh god, at least he sounds the way she remembers him. And what if that isn't accurate? What if she's started to forget what he sounds like and--

No. Focus. There's a here and now, and maybe if Pidge shows that she means no harm at all, then he'll take off that helmet and that'll end her curiosity. Focus.

Pidge moves around toward the opposite end, to the panels that the stranger can't reach from where he stands.] Okay. You push that down, I'll turn this one, grab the one that comes up and hand it to you so you can put it in place. Sound good?

Peachy.

[Matt huffs a little, leaning a little harder against the panels so that he can reach out and grab what he's offered. His left leg is buckling a little, the old wound always choosing the worst moment to act up, to make his muscle weaker. No time to shake it out, though, otherwise he'll have to start all over.]

Okay, I'm ready.

[Pidge nods to herself, eyes narrowing behind her helmet. It won't do her any good to keep lingering on the What Ifs, even when the way this guy huffs is acutely familiar in a way that makes her heart ache. She can't get her hopes up. She won't.]

Okay, count of three. [She takes a deep breath.] One- Two- Three-

[And there she goes, hurrying to make the necessary adjustments, handing over the piece when it comes up. She keeps very focused on the task at hand, mind carefully blank, and in such a state it's easy to miss how natural their teamwork is. It's just like solving video game puzzles back home with her brother...]

[It's so easy -- not simply because there's another person, and this is definitely a two-person job. It's effortless, Matt barely having to shift to grab the piece he's handed, the other person moving to adjust their weight when the wall responds. It's like they know what he's going to say before he says it.

And the oddness of that, the familiarity distracts him to the point that he doesn't realize his leg is buckling and bending underneath him, and he doesn't pay attention to the shifting and sliding of the panels and then he's going down onto one knee at the exact same time a portion of the wall pops out, knocking off his mask in one smooth motion and getting a:]

Augh! Fuck!

[She isn't even thinking about it. She does what feels natural, she can just tell what's going to happen and how to make it really work. And it's more than just being smart, it's--

-the way the guy gets smacked to the floor and goes down like a ton of bricks.

With a shout Pidge scrambles to his side to help him get back up, dropping to a knee right next to him and reaching for his arm.] Are you okay--

[And then she sees him. The unmistakable features of his face, still so similar to her own despite the fact that time has definitely passed - How long has it even been now? - and hair that damn near mirrors her own. She's staring, long enough that maybe it's become really awkward, but only because it's a struggle to find her voice.]

...Matt?

[Matt shakes his head a couple times, hair too long and stringy, flopping around his face. He rubs at his forehead and blinks up at the masked stranger.]

...yeee...es? [He's used to lying about his identity back in the real world, but: pyramid.]

[It's gone. Her voice is entirely gone. There's so much she wants to say, but she can't trust herself to get it out without just... breaking.

Instead she just raises her hands and lifts the helmet up and off of her head, lowering it to the ground and shaking her own floofy mess of hair out. Her eyes are wide and watery when they meet his, and she's practically holding her breath while she silently pleads that he recognizes her, that this isn't some alternate reality Matt who has no idea who she is.]

[And Matt just stares. For a long moment it might seem like he is, in fact, that alternate reality Matt, the one who can't see past a haircut and some borrowed glasses and a couple years of height. He doesn't even blink during that moment, too busy looking up at her from his position half-sprawled on the floor.

Then, very slowly, he gets to his feet, cloak falling in gentle folds around him. He reaches out, cautiously, touches a shorn lock of hair, like he's waiting for her to disappear.

Softly:] Hey, pigeon.

test drive meme 21

phanos

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u will pry this "pidge-is-short-for-pigeon" headcanon from my cold, dead hands