TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[neosapienmods]

JANUARY TEST DRIVE

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1: SPRAWLING WASTELAND, GLOWING IN THE DARK

No sunlight reaches the Underground, but there is rain: grey, oily droplets that slowly trickle down from the city above, seeping through layers of concrete until they drip from broken light fixtures onto the aptly named black markets below. The glow of neon signs keeps the shadows at bay, just barely. What was once a system of utility tunnels and basement bunkers is now a warren of tiny shops offering reprogrammed ID chips and back-alley cybernetic upgrades, where hitmen and slave traders operate with lawless impunity. But someone is always watching... the eyes of Yakashbah, graffitied in bioluminescent paint, stare unblinking from the walls.

People come to this place for only two reasons: they're either looking for something, or they're trying not to be found. Whatever your reason, the Underground welcomes you.

2: A MIND OF DARKNESS, A HEART OF LIGHT

Outside of manicured parks and glass-enclosed vertical farms, green space is rare in New Gate City, so the elites flaunt their wealth in private rooftop gardens. Fragrant, exotic flowers bloom amidst strings of lanterns, and real grass - an extravagant luxury - carpets the ground beneath partygoers' feet as they sip champagne and admire the dark cityscape below. Tonight, one of the Douman Zaibatsu's myriad charity organizations hosts its annual fundraising gala... but this year, the special guests attract even more attention than the celebrities and fashionistas in attendance. Representatives from the Neo Sapien Organization have been invited to speak on the topic of Human/Meta-human relations, and to raise money on behalf of job placement programs for impoverished Metas in the Last Ward. Of course, most within the Douman Zaibatsu would prefer that these "job placement programs" send Metas to the farms far outside New Gate City (or better yet, to the lunar strip mines), but at least for tonight, members of both factions hide behind false smiles and false words.

3: AS FEAR'S REPLICATING, YOUR WORDS RESONATING

Someone gasps, and everyone looks up. Arcadia's central shopping district goes silent, save for the distant sound of pop tunes played over tinny speakers, as a massive black banner unfurls down the side of a building. A crudely drawn eye fills the banner, bisected by a line of white paint... the unofficial symbol of the Meta rights movement. People start to whisper, and somewhere, there's a cheer. Police drones buzz through the air above.

Meta rights protests aren't uncommon in this part of New Gate City, even though they're soon dispersed by local security forces. This banner, too, will be quickly taken down and destroyed, but the photos and videos of the event will be harder to suppress. Already, the bystanders are murmuring to each other, some in support and some in fear. Others keep their heads down, wary of expressing their true feelings about the rising numbers of Meta-humans. And as security forces move to block off the area, others are frantically trying to disappear.

4: A NEW HOPE GLISTENS OFF THE STREETS

The blocks surrounding the Neo Sapien Organization's headquarters in the Middle Ward are like an oasis at the center of an otherwise inhospitable city. Old buildings have been renovated into bright and cheerful apartments that accommodate a variety of Meta-human physiologies, Meta schools and Meta-owned businesses are flourishing, and Meta-friendly shops and cafes line the streets.

The best coffee in the Middle Ward can be found at The Mean Bean, just across from the NSO building, where the shop's fire-breathing Meta owner personally roasts every batch. NSO employees and and other patrons of the popular cafe congregate to discuss local news and gossip: a proposed Meta registration and identification law, rumors of vigilante gangs near the border with the Last Ward, and rivalries between NSO university sports teams. Arguments occasionally grow heated (especially when it comes to sports), but overall the atmosphere is friendly and congenial.

5: WITHIN THE CHAOS, I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE

The Last Ward's electrical grid is reliably unreliable, but blackouts on this scale are rare. Half the ward has been dark for the past three days, save for a few emergency generators and dwindling battery backups. As winter winds batter old, drafty concrete apartment blocks, the residents grow restless and frustrated. Police have already put down several riots, but there's no stopping the spike in looting and other petty crimes.

In the Parish, many people have opted to barricade themselves inside their homes until the blackout ends, but others are taking advantage of the chaos. Most, though, have chosen to band together to protect each other throughout the long nights. The people of the Parish may not have much, but at least they have a sense of community.

Comments

[fibrillate]

2. brother right here we're livin' it

A case of mistaken identity. That's all. That's all Leviathan will say if anybody from the elite class approaches them and says that they remind them of that long-dead Carassia daughter. It's part of the reason Levi has clouded over their glasses tonight; the resemblance is mostly in their eyes now. And as long as they don't meet anybody who knew Hope when she was "alive", they shouldn't run into any issues. The classy tuxedo they've put on, even if the top couple buttons of their undershirt are open, should defer most questions.

Those in the ruling class will be engaging with Leviathan talking politely, demurely. Behaving themself as they try to discuss the benefits of allowing Meta-humans among the Central Ward—should any exist, of course—to attend education and training programs with the Organization. Feeding them a mostly-garbage story about how they grew up with parents who didn't understand Meta-humanity, but who had heard about the NSO and allowed the Organization to provide Levi with a safe place to develop and grow and learn.

The other ambassadors probably know by now that Levi is at least partially full of shit, and they'll waste no time sharing that sentiment with their companions once they get a moment of privacy. Once they're among colleagues, the schmoozing turns into a hushed whisper and grumblings about how the Central Ward can afford to fund the NSO for years if they'd just stop thinking Meta-humans are something to shove under the carpet and ignore. They fire off a few sparks against their champagne flute and drink deep, and maybe nobody notices their demeanor now that they're not on a pedestal. Who knows? Who cares.

4. and we will always raise them up

We enter on a theymer chilling at one seat of an open four-top in the Mean Bean. Usually Levi is an energy drink kind of person, but they're fresh out of gamer fuel and besides, they like this coffee shop. They've got the day off and they're planning on spending it getting their Future Overwatch game even tighter, and they're gonna need caffeine for that. Not a bad time to catch up with people while they plan out the best place to go to discharge the energy that they're gonna build up from drinking this.

Their glasses are clear and they're actually smiling once they've had a few sips, and right now they're almost feeling like a real-ass person. "What's up?" they ask casually to the first person they recognize. (Or maybe they just think they recognize them.) "You got any big plans for today?"

((here's levi's AU workshop comment in case you wanna know the kind of people they'd know, or their whole deal in general))

4

[lightnovelexperiences]

"Need to pull a graveyard shift at the Tote-Em-Snax," Jess sighs over her depth charge and bagel, temporarily having morphed back her ears and a single tail in this safe space. She's going for blonde today, fennec colors. Not to be confused with the bright red and cream of the vigilante of many tails, Yeowoo. "Bringing in a new shipment, new rice bowls, another case of the tie-in potions for LMAO. Which was your favorite again, Mana or Health?"

She rolls her neck - completely unnecessary given her biokinetic powers, but it feels better and it's less lossy to manipulate her muscles naturally. "Bright side is that leaves me free from 10 AM to start of shift. I have some errands to run -" in costume, in the Last Ward - "But that means 4-8 I can be online. What are you game for?"

[fibrillate]

Levi gives a weak smile. "Still need you to come in for graveyards, huh? When are they gonna get more people there?" And then shakes their head. It isn't important. Work only exists for however long people want to pay for it, and even if the NSO is better at it than most, they should probably both be grateful for the work they do have.

"Whatever. You know I love the taste of blue," they say dryly to the person who is definitely just a convenience store clerk and nothing else. Nobody could ever confuse Jess with Yeowoo, obviously, and nobody would ever dream to bring up the similarities. "I'm working on getting my Sombra game down, but if you wanted to do some League stuff then I could probably do some fine-tuning on my ADC." They shrug and lift their coffee up to their lips, then mutter out, "It's up to you," before drinking.

FYI, going with expies because LOL and OW characters are appable

[lightnovelexperiences]

"When the NSO actually gets around to breathing down their neck," she says, sighing (and yawning).

"Wow. Last night took more out of me than I thought," she slips. "More of an FPS mood anyway, I don't have the brains to think of item builds and level pathing right now. I'm probably going to be Akira's pocket healer."

One of her friends from before everything happened, currently doing data entry with the NSO... and maintaining the LMAO wiki.

pretend that's what levi said because i JUST got LMAO and it's a very good expy

[fibrillate]

"FPS it is. Or you could—this is just an idea, you don't have to listen to me," they start, and they're grinning and peering over the edge of their glasses. "You could go home and take a nap."

Listen, they've seen enough doctors to know that supplementing lack of sleep with caffeine probably isn't super healthy. They've also ignored those doctors more than they probably should've, so they understand if Jess won't listen. But whatever. They lean back in their chair and take another sip of their coffee extremely causally.

"You won't be giving your A-game if you're tired. Unless healing's one of those things where you don't have to focus," says the DPS main, "But I'm pretty sure it's not."

i'm very proud of it

[lightnovelexperiences]

"I am going home to take a nap," she says, yawning. "Once I'm done with breakfast. Honest, cross my heart."

She appreciates their concern but this is fine. She is okay with the events currently unfolding.

"I'll text you when I'm ready to play, okay? After I sleep."

[fibrillate]

"Yeah, yeah," they say, waving it off. They're not Jess' mom, or her dad, or her parent or whatever. "As long as you're taking care of yourself better than I am. I really shouldn't be drinking any of those potion promotions," or propotions, "But they just make the things taste so damn good."

They manage it however they can, of course. The coffee's black, and they take low-sugar options when they can when it comes to energy drinks, but the thing is that they taste delicious. "I could probably use a nap or two but it's hard to get everything to calm down enough, you know? Do you have any ideas that aren't just working until I'm too tired to stand?"

[lightnovelexperiences]

"I could give you a backrub," she offers, seriously. "Between my metatalent and just being touched, it helps with stress a lot."

It's an offer made in earnest and innocently; they're not lovers and she doesn't expect they ever will be. But that doesn't mean she can't be affectionate, especially with an actual theraputic purpose.

[fibrillate]

"Oh, for real?" they ask, and they don't read anything into it more than what's there. They're not the kind of person to think that there's... more to any offers, really, but that's mostly just because they don't—well, it's complicated. No reason to get into it. Levi sets down the cup and looks up.

"Right now? Or did you not want to do it in public?" That's a legit question, too. "I'm fine with it here but it's up to you. Gonna be your hands and your powers. People already think I'm a weirdo," they finish, giving a lopsided little grin.

4

[thezekeinator]

"Please, Levi. When do I plan small?"

In one smooth motion, Zeke yanked a chair back onto one leg, palm flat so it spun with the motion. Looking almost lazy in doing so, Zeke casually stepped in to match its rotation and drop down seamlessly into it as it banged back down on the ground.

...At least, that was his plan, and it would have worked perfectly had he not planted one boot heel smack dab in the middle of a napkin left on the ground by some previous patron. His leg shot out from beneath him, and Zeke crashed to the ground out of sight as the chair slowly rocked to a halt on all four feet again.

A moment later Zeke shot into the chair on the opposite side of the table, scrambling into it like he'd never been doing anything but sitting in that chair throughout his entire life.

"You got anything for yourself?"

[fibrillate]

Levi, for their part, sat stock still except for their head slightly turning to follow him, like they were locked on to Zeke in an MMO and stuck in a sitting pose. When he finally re-emerged, they blinked once, twice... and clouded their glasses over.

"I've never seen you before in my life," they said dryly, then continued. "But if I had, I'd say I was going to head over to Jess' place in a few hours so she could give me a massage, then we're going to try to work on our team comp together and see if we can tighten anything up." From behind their glasses, their eyes slide to Zeke, and they give the tiniest grin. "What not-small things did you have planned, o graceful one?"

[thezekeinator]

"I'm not sure I should tell a complete stranger," Zeke returned, leaning back in the chair with, fortunately, less disaster than his last effort. "But it's another fun day in the lab. Trying to get me to expand the limits of my power, so all sorts of fun there."

They'd been trying to get him to push his range of acquisition, and even more ambitiously, obtain two meta-gestalt powers at once. Zeke put up with this in good stride, but they knew perfectly well it hurt like the dickens. All in the name of science, though.

"Maybe I should prevail on you to book a massage slot for me too, huh?"

[fibrillate]

"I don't know, you'd have to talk to Jess about that. I won't make any plans for her, especially since they still have her on the graveyard shift. You know how valuable that time is."

They would've been a fool not to be at least a little concerned about him getting pushed too far, though. Even if it had been going on for a while and, over time, they'd started to trust the tests and trials he was undergoing. But of course, they couldn't say any of that out loud. They blinked another couple times and cleared their glasses up, because the joke wasn't going to be funny with the actual care they were putting into their words.

"If you keep botching your sitting down roll like that, you'll need more than just a massage. Try to be more careful, Zeke?"

[thezekeinator]

"Whoever taught you that game is a maniac," said Zeke, trying to pretend like he himself hadn't got sucked into the same shenanigans thanks to Levi's gentle encouragement (and/or taunting). "You know I can handle it! Worrying about me should be the last thing on your mind!"

One virtue of growing up on a more physically-oriented homestead was good shape from the beginning -- and since his own power was entirely reliant on others, he made a serious point of keeping in top shape so he wouldn't slow anyone down or burden them any more than he already did by needing to keep near them.

(Also he felt obligated to compete with Yang.)

[fibrillate]

"I know," they said, sighing quietly. They really should've known by now that he would be fine without them and that this unbelievable string of bad luck of his was only going to ding him up at best, but. It was hard not to be at least a little worried about him.

"I still haven't been able to make time to play anything in between everything else. I'm getting by on podcasts until then." TAZ II: The Sequel to TAZ had been sating their curiosity for the most part, but it was making them antsy to come up with a character and sit down and do some stuff with friends, too. That was how it always went, they heard.

"It's not like I'm not already playing my own character every day anyway," they added with a sly grin. "You're lucky you met someone who thinks naming themself Leviathan is the coolest thing in the world. Who else would listen to you brainstorm attack names for hours?"

[thezekeinator]

"Especially since you AREN'T one." Seriously, Levi's one of the smallest or at least slenderest people he hangs out with. They're the anti-Little John of these Merry Thems.

Zeke leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up onto the one that had sent him tumbling without much regard for the space he might be stealing from Levi under the table. "Sounds to me like we've got to make some time. Who else are we going to haul into this mess?"

Yes, he'd just implicitly agreed to play with them and even help them out in making it happen. Don't point that out, okay, Levi? Direct signs of caring are kind of weird between the two of them!

[fibrillate]

"It's a metaphor, dummy," they said, and they were grinning, and they didn't even mind that he was taking up so much space; he wasn't a bad person to share it with, after all. And again, it wasn't like Levi took up that much in the first place.

"I'll figure it out. Jess might be a lock, but her schedule would be rough to work with. Jack-O would probably be really into it, but I don't know what everyone else might think about having her there?" Not that Zeke would probably have any objections with what was effectively another NSO pet project, but not everybody was as chill as Levi about a hyperactive cyborg. They inhaled carefully and looked away ever so slightly. "I'm... going back and forth on inviting Yang."

2

[crusaderess]

Jotako, to her credit, was able to reel in her usual aura of intimidation that followed her to things like this. It was necessary to set it aside so as not to ruffle the feathers of the elite. Part of this, however, also meant remaining more silent than usual. So when she approached Levi later, they were probably the first words she spoke all evening...

"Are you okay?" She didn't just mean mentally. Anger could palpitate, after all.

[fibrillate]

Oh, Jotako was here, too. Good. They're... Leviathan smiled just from seeing them, and only slightly theatrically, they placed a hand on their chest, over their heart, to mime feeling their pulse.

"I'm still here and nothing feels like it's hurting. I found some bourgeois social angels who thought that my mutation was a neat little parlor trick instead of what everyone else thinks about it." They were still trying to be pleasant, but the corners of their mouth dropped a little remembering the undercurrent of debasement running alongside every arc they'd shot off. "I hope their cooked fish bites were worth it," they said, struggling to find a better way to describe lightning-fried sashimi. "How have you been?"

[crusaderess]

"I'm surviving," Jotako let out a breath, shaking her head. "And you should be more careful. It's not hurting now, but stunts like that could cause a situation."

[fibrillate]

"I know," they say, trying not to feel too guilty about it. "I didn't make it anything too flashy. And I don't think anybody who knew... you know, her is here? Or maybe they are and they just aren't putting it together," they say with their voice suddenly down lower so they don't give themself away too obviously.

[crusaderess]

"You didn't have to come...," Jotako responded simply. And while that was true, she understood on some level why Levi thought they had to. But subjecting oneself to things like that...

[fibrillate]

"I know," comes out again, and they're not doing as good a job managing the guilt this time. They really do manufacture their own tragedy sometimes, huh? "But I really do want to change the way people like us are seen up here. Even if my parents don't... I don't know. Even if they're not here, if we get enough good PR, maybe that can change their minds?"

They sigh and lean against the nearest flat surface, then give Jotako a look like she's gonna let them get away from the subject. "Did anyone try to bet they could get you to say three words this time?"

[crusaderess]

"Magnus got me out of it, so we had a few drinks together as thanks," Jotako huffed, though the statement wasn't completely frustrated, with some fondness paid towards her colleague for seemingly constantly knowing the right thing to say when she so often did not.

Well, that and being a giant so she stood out less.

[fibrillate]

"Good. Glad you could find a way out of it." Whether Jotako was uncomfortable by these sorts of things or was just stoic and quiet, Levi themself still had problems figuring out. Even after how long they'd known each other. They looked at her and pushed their hair back, out of their face.

"You didn't have to come to this either, did you? I never took you for much of a social person." Might as well just say that.