+ ENTRANCEWAY TEST DRIVE MEME +

[vitaelamorte]

Has this ever happened to you? You are an adventurous and daring roleplayer bursting with motivation and ideas, and Wonderland seems just the place for you to let your creativity flourish, AND YET... you doubt.

Unsure if your grasp on that one character's voice is as firm as you'd like it to be? Wondering how exactly your regular character's quirks will work out, once you've turned them into a Mirror? Curious and curiouser about how your magnificent muse might fit into the world of Wonderland? Or do you simply want to warm up and stretch your legs, before submitting that application and coming to meet entranceway's characters and players?

THEN WE HAVE JUST THE THING FOR YOU!

If this delicious apple in its constant, looming spin



is the spitting image of the doubts and concerns holding you back from IMMEDIATELY applying one or more characters to this game, then you have come to the right place! Boldly reach for your juicy and vitamin-filled hesitation and crush it between your teeth, with our latest, greatest and most fashionable

♥ ENTRANCEWAY ♥
TEST DRIVE MEME

► Try out any new characters and new Mirrors here! Have a go at the setting, thread with its current players, and see if Wonderland is a good fit for you and/or your character. Post a top level comment, tag into other people's starters, enjoy yourself!

► Thread your character's arrival, set a scene with them as long-established inhabitant, or let one of our past events inspire you. Any starter is fine, and both prose and comment spam are welcome!

► Please only note that threads on the test drive meme ARE NOT GAME CANON. They can't be used as part of the activity check OR as samples for any future applications. Thank you for understanding!

► Intrigued? Check out our...

NAVIGATION | INPUT & INQUIRIES | TAKEN CHARACTERS | WANTED CHARACTERS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS

AND THAT IS ALL, so go test those drives, drive those tests, and seize the apple! ♥

Comments

[directed]

[Only now does Rip have the first inkling that something could potentially be off with her. Even then, however, whatever mental nudge he feels can be easily explained away to her status as one newly arrived. Only a day, and not a beat later she beats Rip to the question he'd been about to ask next. Always, always it must come down to a matter of the timeline, and he's quietly impressed that it had been her first thought too.

Of course, that does little to make his answer easier; Rip glances down, his hands coming to rest on his hips now that they're close enough to have a normal conversation.]

The last thing I remember. [Oh, it's not that he needs to strain to think; far from it. Even now, so many months later, Rip can remember the conversation perfectly. But if Sara has yet to live it, then revealing too much could inform her of a tragedy she hasn't yet faced, far before she should have to.]

You and I were having a conversation when Gideon informed us we were ready to make the time jump to Saint-Lo, France, in 1944. [Rip doubts Sara would mistake the time for anything else if she does remember it. And if she doesn't, then Rip has hopefully given away nothing to make her suspicious.] You might have been pulled from a completely different time; in fact, given the way things go around here, I suspect it's likely.

[taer]

[ he answers, and sara rocks back onto her heels, a physical reaction that's driven entirely by emotion. oh, she remembers it and she won't mistake it for anything else. she knows what their conversation was about at that precise moment in time.

how could she forget?

her lips press together for a long moment before she responds. ] You suspect right. I'm from months after that. [ he'd tried hard not to give too much away; she can appreciate that, or she could if recollection didn't still hurt. her sister is dead, and sara hadn't been there.

sara still hasn't killed the man who did it, either. she wants to, the urge thrumming under her skin and making her hands curl into fists before she forces them open again. ]

[directed]

[Even before she confirms it, Rip knows Sara must have lived to at least that point in the timeline. The way she shifts before him, the silence that stretches on: all of it tells, and Rip finds himself biting back on the urge to apologize for having to bring that painful moment to the fore of her memories.

Luckily, they can move forward, perhaps to the benefit of them both. She claims to be from months after and Rip nods.] Perhaps more in line with Dr. Palmer then, or Mr. Rory. They're both here as well, by the way. [Ray most likely in his workshop, and Mick drinking if Rip had to guess. He pauses, then remembers to add in another name.]

Dr. Heywood as well; I've only met him here, of course, but you might already know him from before.

[taer]

I know him. [ she confirms. rip doesn't ask her what the last thing is that she remembers, and so she doesn't offer it. it's better, she thinks, if he doesn't know that his mind has been messed with, if he doesn't know that he's killed her. there's pain in his gaze now, if she's reading him right, at having caused her pain. it's a remnant of the man she knew before, the man she'd grown to respect a great deal. ] How long have you been here?

[directed]

[Rip doesn't ask, nor will he. He's made it a policy to learn as little about his own personal future as possible, despite every reassurance from his fellows that no one remembers when they go home. He will not put the timeline at risk regardless--cannot, given that he's already been told they defeat Vandal Savage, and in a far more distant time, perhaps also Eobard Thawne. Anything more poses too much of a risk, no matter how the little hints that have slipped may sharpen his curiosity.

Far easier to focus on the situation at present. Sara asks the next logical question, again, just a beat before Rip can offer up the information himself.]

Nearly half a year now. The dimension we're in is removed from the timeline as we know it. [Which accounts both for the differences in what they know from home, and in any gaps between the last time Sara may have seen him in their world, and how long Rip claims to have spent in this one.] And on the whole, quite an effective prison, I'm afraid.

[He could leave it at that; Rip nearly does. But something in her quiet answers, her equally short questions cannot help but to make Rip wonder, and he looks to her with a soft frown.]

Are you quite alright, Sara?

[taer]

I'm fine.

[ her reply is immediate. it's not a lie, exactly, either: physically, she is fine thanks to gideon's intervention just in time. she's alive (again). mentally and emotionally? it weighs on her that the rip hunter she knew is gone, replaced by a man literally seeking to kill her, with no recollection of the respect they'd once shared. rip had been the one who told her that she isn't a monster. he'd told her that she's one of the strongest people he knows.

sara is fine. she's strong enough to manage this, too. it still hurts, though, and part of her had wanted to let jax kill him. it wouldn't have been fair to jax, though. killing leaves a mark on your soul, sara knows that better than anyone, and she doesn't want that for jax.

maybe she's still holding out hope that there's a way to get rip back, too. the old one, the one who'd look at her the way he's looking at her right now, like she's someone who matters. ] Things have happened. It's complicated.

[directed]

[Her answer comes too quickly.

He thinks the observation just as automatically as the reply itself that now stands in question. And with that crack Rip can see in her facade, so many questions now spark in his mind. Of course he wants to ask after her, to push the point and voice his concern--

But she's lived through several months, she's already said. A beat later, and she calls those things that have happened "complicated." It's all part of the future he's done so much to avoid learning of, the certain and written out path Rip has yet to live, but knows one day he will.

When does that selfish desire to not know, to avoid the burden of a destined fate give way to the worry he feels for a dear friend?]

If... [He swallows; this cannot be a choice made lightly. Not by him.] If there is something I can do... [He gestures outward with a hand. The offer feels futile, insufficient, yet even this much comes with a price. Though she has no way of knowing it, it's more than he's given nearly anyone else among their number. Certainly when Ray returned, equally "off" due to something that happened within their world, Rip had ultimately reminded him of the stance he's long held when it comes to knowing of events yet to unfold for him.

It's harder to hold such a limit with Sara, somehow.]

[taer]

[ sara runs a hand through her hair, all of the sudden frustrated — with herself, for not being able to let it go quickly enough, with him for noticing, for pushing the point, with the entire situation. mostly with the situation. it's a frustration that comes from knowing that the rip hunter in front of her is lost to her, to the team. ]

Point me toward a drink?

[ using alcohol to cope is never a great habit, but after the day she's had? honestly, sara thinks she deserves one and if it'll take some of the edge off, all the better. whatever calm she's managed to gain by going through the motions of kata learned long ago has dissipated again, leaving her wrong-footed and confused, frustrated and vulnerable far more than she'd like.

but it isn't fair to him, either, is it? she won't tell him, she can't, but he isn't stupid. he can put two and two together and realise that something is wrong. in fact, he already has.

she sighs, shoulders dropping. ]

I'll get over it. [ she offers. it's not the first time she's died, after all. she blames thea no more than she can blame the real rip. neither of them were in their right mind. ]

[directed]

[Well. It turns out there is something, a temporary fix, and painless at that. Of course it's not the best habit to drink the edge of their problems; no solutions were ever found at the bottom of a glass. Yet he can hardly judge her for it, since Rip himself keeps alcohol on hand in his room within the mansion here, and equally in his parlor back on the Waverider.

So instead, he offers her a sad little grin, then ducks his head once in a brief nod.]

We'll have to go inside, I'm afraid. [Tools and parts he has in number, but as for liquor? He's currently lacking. He casts a glance towards the parcels he's brought up with him, then decides they'll be fine out here for a time. Worst case, someone decides to make off with the lot, and Rip is forced to replace them from the closets.

(Worst case, someone makes use of the scraps and designs something more nefarious than what Rip had originally intended).

He turns, looking back over his shoulder to make sure Sara's following. She'll get over it, and Rip doesn't doubt her word—but it would be nice if there were a way to make the process easier, somehow.

It's likely not to be the case. What distraction he has to offer comes fraught with its own pitfalls.]

How much have you already learned about where we are?

[taer]

[ drowning their sorrows is hardly a good habit to get into, but right now, sara thinks a drink is warranted. sara knows too much about alcoholism and substance abuse to want to get into the habit of it, either. it's ruined her family almost as much as sara's first alleged death had, and it's another thing she hadn't been there to prevent, to help with. (like laurel's death.)

she gives him a nod, now, and follows. there's some tension still between her shoulder blades and in the way she carries herself, but less than before. this isn't the rip who killed her and she remembers trusting him as much as she remembers not being able to. ]

Not nearly as much as I want to know. [ not nearly enough to feel comfortable, and too much to feel comfortable, too. ] Is there a cliffnotes version of the necessary things?

[directed]

Well, I can try—although we both know I'm not always the most concise.

[And even in a life such as either of theirs, where so much they've experienced and done would easily qualify as impossible for most, Wonderland is something of a stretch. There's a certain comfort when it comes to understanding the way things like time and reality are meant to work; Rip's largely discovered as much by having any sense of that understanding taken away.

Five flights of stairs gives Rip the time to offer something of an abbreviated version, however. He tells her of the periodic events that change their environment and sometimes the residents themselves, of deaths that don't last, not just in Sara's case, but for everyone. Mention is given to the Mirrors that exist on the other side of each reflective plane of glass, of Chronos specifically, as his attack remains still fresh in Rip's mind.

With a frown, he tells her about memories, and all the ways this world seems to steal them.

And then of timelines. They've touched upon it already by establishing that Rip is from what Sara sees as the past. So it goes for their whole number, friend and foe: Raymond, Mick, Nate, and Eobard Thawne. None of them seem to have been drawn from the same moment within their own history, and everyone has been pulled from Rip's future.

Save one.

His general inability to keep things short has served in Rip's favor this time, and he offers Sara a look of sympathy as they enter the bar. If she doesn't already know, Rip stands uncertain how she'll take the news—and perhaps it's better to be closer to where they've meant to end up.]

Mr. Snart has been drawn here as well—from the encounter at the Oculus.

[taer]

[ sara lets out a snort at that comment, not terribly ladylike (but then, when was she ever anything like a lady?) but amused. it feels almost normal and she isn't sure yet if it can be. what happened wasn't his fault, but it still happened too recently for sara to trust this change entirely. rationally, she knows he's the old rip. there's still a catch in her chest when she looks at him, though; she can't help it.

it'll fade with time.

it's a lot to take in, everything that he tells her. eobard thawne's presence. snart, alive.

(for a moment, she wonders, wishes that her system could be here as well.) ] How is that possible? [ but no, timelines are complicated things. ] Forget I asked.

[directed]

[Perhaps it isn't the most ladylike, but it's close enough to a laugh that Rip really doesn't mind it. Especially when he considers that Sara still seems uneasy in some way he can't quite place his finger on. Or perhaps he can, at least the barest edges of it, but to try and harder would force the question to the surface—

What has happened in the future--his future—to warrant her looking at him like that?

Offering the explanation of what they know of Wonderland serves as decent enough distraction. Particularly at the end, when she begins to ask for a reason and then decides against it.]

Are you sure? Because I do have a theory. [Perhaps not the best one or the most widely accepted, even among their number. But it's been one of the few effects Rip can name a potential cause for that is something other than "because we're in bloody Wonderland somehow, where nothing makes sense."

There's a pause when they first walk in, before Rip takes her up to the bar. While he might himself have preferred whatever privacy there was to be found in a booth, they would get their drinks faster this way—and Rip suspects Sara might be a bit more comfortable to have that freedom of space.]

[taer]

[ it's better for both of them if he doesn't force the question, if he doesn't try too hard to figure out why she remains just a little on edge, uneasy and tense. he won't be able to change any of it, so there's no use making him carry that weight already. if they ever get him back, if she ever sees this rip again in the regular timeline, he'll have to deal with it one way or another. maybe he'll be able to accept that it wasn't his fault.

somehow, sara doubts it.

but his explanation does offer a distraction, and soon enough they're at the bar. sara scans the rows of bottles behind it for a moment, but turns to rip quickly enough when he says that. ] In that case, lay it on me.