+ ENTRANCEWAY TEST DRIVE MEME +

[vitaelamorte]

Would you like for your character to be devoured by a large lizard?

♥

ENTRANCEWAY
TEST DRIVE MEME

►► Take a brand new muse out for a drive, bring an old voice and try Wonderland's setting and population on for size. See how that Mirror personality fits your character! Post a top level comment, tag into other people's starters, enjoy yourself!

►► Any scenario goes! Thread out your character's arrival, have them act like a long-established resident, let our past events inspire your scene, or write up literally any Wonderland-based scenario you feel like playing with!

►► If you want to take it a step further, check out our NAVIGATION for all the game info you'll need, and our INPUT & INQUIRIES page for any missing pieces. If that's got you convinced, the pages for RESERVES and APPLICATIONS are right there for you!

►► Please only note that any threads made as part of the test drive meme are not game canon, and cannot be used for the activity check OR as samples for any future applications. Thank you for understanding!

AND THAT IS ALL, GET SETTLED IN AND HAVE FUN!

Comments

[revokes]

What? can't hear you. it's the guitar action they've got going on. Think we can turn it up a notch?

[ except there must be someone else there. a pleasant female voice who speaks just over the music, I would need access to a set of speakers, boss. Maybe if - ]

Seriously, if you're going to tell me to talk to a closet again? I'm replacing you. Right now.

[ he looks at her, and then. ]

What?

[ he'll offer her the plate of brownies. obviously, this is why she's here, right? ]

Go wild. Paint the town red. These are perfectly safe. They're not Happy Brownies if you know what I mean.

[ though he realizes she probably doesn't know what he means, judging by how young she looks. why is she looking so young? ]

[mucked]

[ she's torn. because on one hand, the music doesn't sound much like music at all and peggy is swiftly deciding she hates it. but on the other? brownies.

and if she'd had a third hand? well! it would tenderly hold her rampant curiosity in its palm. that's the hand peggy decides to go with as she waves off the brownies (patience, carter!) and waggles a hand by her ear. ]

-- You're talking to someone. [ and it's not her. ] Who else is here?

[ this is...troubling. ]

[revokes]

My online girlfriend. We've been going steady for four years, though lately we've going through this relationship crisis, she says I'm too clingy -

[ but the female voice stops this fit of rambling when it announces My name is F.R.I.D.AY, a user interface system created to help Mr. Stark in his endeavors. ]

Traitor. Mute. This instant.

[ why does he rely on these systems again? ]

[mucked]

[ oh, christ, is this an 'internet' thing? she's still trying to wrap her head around internet things. and that's a fact she'd be quick to tell the man except the voice cuts in once more and...

mister stark. this is no stark she knows, although the resemblance is striking now that the name is out there winging 'round the conversational space like a dark omen. peggy frowns, indulges in her confusion a moment, until: ]

Bugger. You're him.

[ stark, the son. in one of their last few decent chats, steve had told her about him. every last line of distant courtesy drains out of her posture, replaced quickly by a different kind of tension.

it's not a guess. not when the hunch is this good. ] Anthony, isn't it?

[revokes]

I've no idea what you're talking about.

[ no part of him wants to do this. this - twisted version of a family reunion that would probably end with her telling him how much he looks like his father which, yes, will get on his nerves. just the name gets under his skin. he walks back to his chair and his work. ]

Nobody calls me that.

[ said with his back to her. apparently, he's not very big on manners. ]

[mucked]

Tony, then.

[ brusque. there's nothing kind or warm or even approachable in her tone -- not for any natural dislike, because after all he's as good as a stranger to her. but she must protect her own heart and that's best done with a good three feet of steel between herself and anything approaching sentiment. ]

You are Tony Stark, aren't you?

[ there's a chance she's wrong. but she knows what being wrong feels like -- and that sensation is conspicuously absent in this moment. ]

[revokes]

[ there's no reply. nothing at all, no confirmation or denial. there's no point in it and tony seldom does anything with no point unless it involves parties or alcohol. he knows she must already know and it not, it's a matter of time anyway.

it still doesn't mean he's going to be helpful about it. ]

Ok F.R.I.D.A.Y, I'm going to need you to display everything on the phone's memory card, starting from file R-19 onward. Try to do your best until we get a working screen.

[ apparently, he's outright ignoring her. ]

[mucked]

[ she's being ignored. oh, she doesn't like it. not one bit. it galls and it offends and it is just enough to turn her that little bit mercenary. so peggy aims to get a rise, no matter what the cost.

she'd gleaned enough to recognize a suggestion of tension between this man and one other. gleaned enough to recognize that the tension might be her best lever to wedge in and crack this conversation open a little wider. and yes, god, she hates discussing him with anyone but just now peggy deploys the name like a goddamned weapon: ]

Steve Rogers told me about you.

[ a warning shot. a practice throw. peggy watches tony stark with meticulous care -- if so much as an eyebrow twitches, she wants to note it. ]

[revokes]

Only the good things? About how we barbecued together on the fourth of July by Brooklyn Bridge while singing America the Beautiful?

[ dry, dry, dry. he doesn't want to discuss Cap with anyone, least of all her, least of all now. ]

Open operation manual.

[ both levels? ]

Yes, keep them coming.

[ he's using the screw she gave him and all the while looking at his phone at what seems like a manual or a sketch of something, it's hard to tell what. ]

[mucked]

[ excellent. because peg doesn't want to discuss cap with anyone, either. but it's good to know the way that he 'ignores' her has boundaries. there's something -- a tender spot, or an ego perhaps -- that she can prod at and scrape out a reaction if she must.

peggy leans against a tea-room table. there's a pot with steam rising, and she helps herself to a cuppa. ]

Heavens, no. Although that sounds particularly dreadful. [ barbecue and patriotic songs. her nose crinkles. ] Mostly your name. And about an AI system you'd developed.

[ wow, peggy carter should probably not know what an ai system is. and yet she does. she nods at the air around them, as though referencing the voice. ] Is that it? Friday?

[revokes]

F.R.I.D.A.Y isn't an AI system. She's a program.

[ he doesn't want to discuss his one AI system. mostly since it ended up trying to kill them all. he sounds impatient, impatient because he needs to deal with whatever it is Cap went and told her and with the subject of Cap and with a memory of a dead woman.

he could use a drink or three. ]

AI system indicates something that thinks for itself, not that Cap would know any of it because he can't tell the enter key from the space one.

[ and not that it's anyone's business, his pose indicates. ]

[mucked]

[ she doesn't a markedly better job of not rising to what might have been bait. if he wants to slander steve, he's welcome -- peggy doesn't rush to his defense for a variety of reasons. hell, even if things hadn't gone so pear-shaped her protests might have been equally unlikely.

but there is something important to consider. ]

So Friday's not the one with the -- stone? [ she doesn't think about the name as an acronym. ] I'd heard there was one with a stone being kept safe. A rather important sort of stone.

[ a leading comment. c'mon, stark, chat a bit more. ]

[revokes]

Of course he went head into that. But I'm going to go on a limb here and assume you're asking me because he's not around to continue these Tales from the 21st Century thing with an old army buddy?

[ otherwise, she'd be asking Cap, right? ]

Shouldn't you two been exchanging memories from Normandy or something?

[mucked]

[ he's right. but if he's as much of his father's son as steve suggested he was, peggy doubts he ever needs to be told he's right. so she glosses over the (correct) conclusion that steve's not here.

it's a better reason than the equally correct conclusion that she and steve simply weren't on speaking terms. ]

I never saw action at Normandy.

[ such a useful rejoinder, peg. ]

[revokes]

[ so cap is gone, that happened. tony doesn't know if he really wants him here. cap is an asshole but tony isn't that selfish that he can't appreciate that rogers would have probably helped to make amends and try to piece together their friendship or something as stupid as that. ]

Well, I'm out of Vera Lynn numbers on this phone and I'm not up to discussing old war stories or newer ones.

[ steve should have kept his mouth shut, too but of course he didn't. ]

[mucked]

And yet you're up to something.

[ a dry gesture at his hard (loud) work. she's brimming over with curiosity and tony's done nothing to alleviate it. ]

[revokes]

Turns out.

[ that he's up to something. many people would claim tony stark is always up to something. one can hope it's not another ultron. he takes a bite off a brownie and resumes his work.

she's not going to go away. he knows that much. not just because he knows who he's talking to but also because she reminds him of pepper. she's going to stand there making obvious observations until he folds.

he doesn't hurry to fold. ]

[mucked]

[ and so they enter a new awkward phase of their acquaintanceship. tony's a difficult ass, and peggy hangs back not quite understanding that to him she's more than simply the paper-clipping figure from history that the others seem to know her as. after all, it's not as though her name's been said.

but at least he's not suggesting she be anyone's birthday party princess and therefore things are already looking up, attitudes aside. ]

Presumably with a bit of something you've managed to bring from home? [ look, she can just make guesses all day. she's willing. ]

[revokes]

You must be a champion in charades.

[ he comments, dry. he doesn't say anything meaningful or give away anything, either. it's not that tony doesn't trust her, it's that he can't really look at her without a flow of memories that hit too close to home. he hasn't been able to attend her funeral and yet there she is.

he's never known her like this, either. it's eerie. it's complicated but then, what isn't? ]

[mucked]

And you must be a remarkable team player.

[ she looks for the spaces between the ribs. the tender places on the belly. anything, really, that might hurt. tony's right; he's never known her like this. on the back foot and a lot like a creature backed into a corner. ]

Tell me what you're trying to do. [ ... ] If it's at all useful, I'd like to help.

[ and that's got nothing to do with who he is or who his father was or what an avenger might be. that's just peggy carter wanting to do good work. ]

[revokes]

Uh, do you realize how counterproductive it is to indicate that I'm not a good team player which - I'm not.

[ most days he is but not lately. ]

and then talk about helping? When I don't actually need help? I get you're bored.

[ because hell, he's already bored. ]

But there's no assistant required memo posted anywhere.

[mucked]

-- I never said anything about being anyone's assistant.

[ now she's offended. apparently this is what it takes to offend her. all else has been taken in stride until this point. ]

[revokes]

That's too bad because I would kill for a double espresso right now and all this Hilton Head tea room is giving me is chai lattes.

[ well, it seems like he's up to something. he's ruffled her feathers and now, he's trying to press this point, to get her to leave him be to his thoughts and his worries. ]

[mucked]

[ something twitches in her jaw. peggy fills her lungs; she stands up from where she'd been leaning against the table, setting aside her cup of tea. ]

You know, at least Howard knew better than to ever so much as dare to expect I'd fetch him coffee.

[ but here's the worst part. howard certainly didn't. grab this, get that, bring him a whole bloody meal when she'd squirreled him away in the griffith. but now they're out to bruise each other, it seems. mercy falls to the wayside. ]

[revokes]

Breaks your heart, doesn't it.

[ it's dry, it lacks interest. tony has never had the chance to make any sort of peace with his father before his passing. a video of howard stark claiming he's proud of him doesn't make up for twenty one years of absence and a cold shoulder. without the ability to asked him questions that mattered, to lash and to heal, the wound festered, becoming something ugly and painful.

he's not letting her rub salt into it, if only because she's a wound in her own right, not one made from anger and resentment but one made from early childhood days and grief that he hasn't even had time to process.

now's not the time. ]

I'm not Howard.

[ he says, as a end of discussion sort of claim. he doesn't even call him my father. ]