Test Drive Meme 006

[voidtreckermods]

Welcome to our Test Drive Meme! Here is the place to see how your character might fit the setting, grab some samples and start having fun!

1. Post with your character. I’ve written out some prompts but feel free to make up your own, you have a whole train to play with!

2. Assume they have been around long enough for threads to jump right into the action!

3. Have much fun!

Happy testing!

Void Trecking

The thing about being on a train hurtling through void space is there’s not much to see. Outside the window lies an endless void of kaleidoscope colours shifting and swirling. It’s probably best not to stare at it too long. Do so and you might start to imagine order in it. Shapes, places, even figures. But your eyes shift... Back to chaos. Probably best you do something else other than stare out the window. Or convince your fellow passengers that void watching leads to headaches!

Relaxing

The newest carriage to be added to the Voidtrecker Express is a rock garden. In a glass domed carriage, flickering with the light of the void the rock garden is a peaceful and medative space, full of mosaics, a pond, fountains and small stony bridges.

It's also the closest to an outside space you have and so is likely to be used for less than peacful activities. Splash in the rivers, race around the paths. Or try and relax on a bench and read amongst the chaos.

Goblin Town

Goblins riding wolves, everyone's favourite foe. The wolves fly, obviously and the goblins fight with short spears, almost like knights on horseback if the knights were terrifying and demonic looking. They are causing trouble by harassing a small village.

Team One

Fight the goblins. A handful of weapons have been provided but mostly you need to try and outsmart the goblins. They can come from any direction, including up. Try and keep the village safe from their attacks.

Team Two

Protect the villagers, help them barricade their houses. Deal with any goblins that get through team one's defences. Some of the villagers want to help and that's alright, some of the villagers want to help and are still in single digits, that's probably less alright. Keep everyone safe!

Team Three

The thing with sieges is, some things still need to happen. People still need to eat. Babies need fed and looked after. Animals need tended. Try and help with the logistics of everything in the heart of the village, as far away from the fighting as possible.

Pick a team, go wild!

Comments

[afterburner]

"You guess? Plausible deniability if something goes wrong?" Renee huffs out a laugh, though, before sizing up that rock pile. At one point, it might even have had webbing to hold it together, but that's probably passed long ago, really.

It means she might be able to cheese it, and get to the thing without setting it off. She didn't need to know about the messed-up Simlish Baby Shark either, though if that started playing, she'd know for sure who the real victim was supposed to be.

She edged in closer, crouching and moving oh so slowly. There would be a spot that was too close, and Renee didn't want to hit it, even if she could probably inertia lock the thing from here. She could only vaguely make it out under the rock pile...

Eh, hell with it. Her eyes flared red as she reached out and locked the entire rock pile. The device let out a "squark!" noise, but it blessedly did not go off, at least...

"I don't think I broke it," Renee said sheepishly. "Might have to peel a few rocks off of it first, though." At least she could relax her kinetic control enough to make that happen without a rendition of "Baby Shark", though...

[notapprovedtrash]

"I'm more...cautious." But he stepped back and let Renee do her thing, smiling just a bit. He was excited about the tech involved in making the noisemaker, and grateful that Renee didn't set it off. BD-1 had scanned it and told him it was going to be loud if it did go off, and Cal wasn't really one for too much noise.


Maybe when he was younger, before everything fell apart. But not so much since.

Crouching down again to where the device was now buried and, he hoped, broken enough where it won't activate, he starts using the Force to move rocks very carefully.

Once the device is free, he hesitates for a second before hovering his gloved hand over it.

There's silence, something glows a whitish blue around Cal's hand and the noisemaker and then he kinda huffs out a laugh.

"Whoever made this had a lot of fun doing it. I almost feel bad for ruining things." Turning to look up at Renee, he gives a small shrug.

"Almost."

[afterburner]

"I probably know the perps, so don't worry too much about it. They'll get over it. Or just make a new one and hide it someplace else. The target's a magnet for pranks."

Not that Renee's going to name any names. She's not afraid of getting stitches, so to speak, but most of that crew are her friends, and so this is covering for them.

"Besides, they might get more sneaky, so that's no bad thing either." She grinned at that.

"So what've we got?" Not that she's about to let the inertia lock go on the device just yet. Just in case her doing so does set it off--she doesn't know who'd come running for it, and she just doesn't want that to be a thing.

[notapprovedtrash]

Cal can understand that. He flies with some pretty interesting people, who have done some interesting things. He would't turn on them, even at risk to himself. It's just not how he works. His master taught him that and it's a value he holds onto rigidly.

Besides, it's a harmless prank. Nothing that'd cause anyone any physical harm. Maybe make their eardrums hurt a bit, but that fades after a while, right?

He holds the device in his hands, impressed with how well it'd work, even if it's pieced together with scraps and reused wiring and such. Turning it over in his hands very carefully, he looks it over with a Scrappers eye.

"Well, if we remove this wiring here, and here, we'll have essentially deactivated it. But it's made in such a way that too much movement will set it off and we're trying to avoid that. Right? We should head to the kitchen. There's stuff in there I can use to pull it apart."

A worried tone from BD-1 as the Droid peeks over Cals shoulder.

"I'm being careful, BD. It'll be fine."

[afterburner]

"Hey, I can walk and keep that thing locked down, too, ya know." She made a face at the droid, but it was mostly harmless ragging. She's not going to really do anything mean to Cal's little buddy. Besides, he was kind of cute.

"Sure, I'll follow you. I'm not going to touch it, I'm afraid I'd break it. Don't know my own strength!" It wasn't a good Rodney Dangerfield impression, but she was trying nonetheless.

"I'm just as invested now, so. Besides, it'll be neat to watch you disassemble it, anyway. I always liked watching Doctor McCoy do that sort of thing back home." Even if she was not the type to volunteer to help, since she tended to break stuff.

[notapprovedtrash]

If he knew who Rodney Dangerfield was, he'd probably be impressed. At best, he kinda looks confused before motioning for her to follow him towards the kitchen. He's still carrying the noisemaker carefully.

"So do pranks happen often on the train?" Just out of curiosity. It's not something he did a lot of when he was a Padawan. "I don't want you to out your friends. Harmless fun is just that. Harmless. I'm just wondering what I'm getting myself into."

Careful and self-preservation fueled curiosity.

[afterburner]

"Oh...well, yeah, kind of. Depends on who you are, though, really. I mean the self-appointed Train Leader has a perpetual target painted on his tushie, and some of the other kids make it like, a point of pride to prank each other. I haven't been targeted...yet, but I don't count myself out, for example."

There was the fish prank, too--at least Renee thought it was a fish prank, she'd only heard it through the wall of her cabin car. And she'd pounded on the wall a bit--because when it had gone off, she'd actually been sleeping, for once. And those times were usually few and far between.

"I haven't done any myself, though I've...helped. Like helped get a song stuck in someone's head," Renee said, humming a few bars of 'Baby Shark'.

[notapprovedtrash]

"Are new people safe?" Not that he wouldn't get in on the prank war. While Cal could be a very low key, made-of-chill individual, a prank war sounded like the kind of fun he missed out on.

They get to the kitchen and BD hops off of his shoulder onto a counter, pulling open drawers and scanning contents, moving on to the next drawer when he's done. Eventually, he finds a small, thin bladed butter knife and the sounds coming from him are questioning.

Cal heads over to look, picking up the knife and looking it over before nodding.

"I think this could work for the screws. Thanks, buddy."


Carefully setting the device down on the counter, he uses the Force to pull up stools both for himself and Renee before settling down and starting to work. This here is a guy who knows how to dismantle things and the wires he spoke of are soon cut.

But...now he's curious about how the whole thing works.

"I...would love to record a new message for whoever made this. Just a simple 'nice try, guys'. Nothing too exciting. Or obnoxious. But I don't think I'm going to be able to. There's just a speaker. No way to record anything."

BD lets out a sound that sounds like disappointment and Cal kinda laughs. Just a bit. A small smile on his scarred face, making him look less serious than he actually is.

[afterburner]

"Safe? Safe enough, yeah, usually, unless you cross one of the hardcore prankers, you know? Not that I'm sure who exactly wears that moniker on the train..." Renee said, looking thoughtful at that. "Usually they don't prank without a good reason." Like if you sometimes have a stick up your butt, as an example.

She nearly gets knocked over by her stool, because she's not expecting it. But she catches herself, and sits down in a watchful slump. Renee doesn't usually do tech stuff--her fingers aren't good for fine manipulation, and she knows it. But it's interesting enough to her to at least watch.

"Too bad you can't do a like...wire filament with a tiny power supply that lights up and says that. You wouldn't need a speaker for that. And it might get the point across. You just set it on the rock pile and let it do its thing."

Renee just gives a slight snicker at that. If she had the technical know-how, she might even try that, herself. Since she didn't, she'd probably have just left broken pieces if she'd set it off. Probably because it would've startled her, and not in a good way...

[notapprovedtrash]

"I thought about that," Cal replies, tone appreciative. It's not so much on his face. He's not really one for expressing too much emotion. It's not stoicism. He does express anger when he feels it. It's more out of habit, not to mention his fear of getting close to people. Of trusting people.

But, he trusts the Force. And the Force isn't exactly telling him to stay away from Renee.

"I don't have the tools I need for something like that, unfortunately, and neither does BD."

Otherwise, he'd be on it. He removes more parts, looking over them and holding them up for BD to scan. Finally, he finds the power source. It's just a simple, small 9V battery. Where they got it, he has no idea.

"Your prankster friends are clever. The way they wired it? A lot of wiring bypassed processes that would have taken a lot of power, as did a lot of what they designed this thing to do. But the way they designed it? That battery would have lasted for a good, long while."

He's impressed. And a second later, even moreso. Because removing that battery? Well, he didn't know there was a backup power source. Nor had he any idea that removing this battery would activate the device.

Granted, the volume is a lot lower now that he removed a couple of the speakers, but the song is irritating and repetitive and sudden. BD-1 has run off the counter, knocking over errant objects as he goes, his beeps and trills sounding about the same tone as WHAT THE FUCK?! And Cal...

Nooboo shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
nooboo shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
nooboo shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
nooboo shark!

Before the next line graces them with their presence, Cal has found the final battery and just yanks it out, the song stopping immediately.

"What language is that?" He doesn't ever want to hear it again. So sayeth the look of alarm on his face.

[afterburner]

"That's too bad, that'd be really cool. It was only an idea--"

Renee jerks when the song goes off--she knows the tune, but she doesn't know the language. She's never had the opportunity to play the Sims, ever. She didn't know anyone back on Earth who'd played it--though really, she might have just missed it.

Either way.

"Fucked if I know! But that song? I was humming it earlier, the version I know is 'Baby Shark'. I'll spare you, though." Because really, Renee's sure that Cal will get to hear it at some point.

If only because she'll probably sing part of it at Tony the next time she sees him. Mostly because she can. And it's still a running joke, at least on her part.

She leans over the counter in the direction BD-1 fled, looking for the droid. "You okay, little guy?"

[notapprovedtrash]

BD lets out a few annoyed sounding beeps, peeking around the base of the counter and looking up at Renee. Whatever he said, Cal finds it amusing. There's a faint chuckle from him before he hops off his stool and heads to BD, crouching down.

"I didn't like it, either. But it's fine. It's over." Scooping up BD and letting him scramble up to his usual perch on his shoulder.

"Should we return the parts to your friends? Or hide them in separate spots and see how long it takes to find them?"

[afterburner]

Renee gives this a few moments' serious thought. Then, a big, cheesy grin spreads over her face as her eyes light up with mischief.

"Oh, we ought to hide them! Give them a scavenger hunt sort of dealy, where they have to find everything. Maybe give them a note halfway through where to find the rest. But that depends on how they do. How we feel. If the train's on a planet that day. You know."

She snickers a bit at that, and shrugs. She knows she's a pain in the ass, and she's hardly apologetic about it. "We can even make a bet or something, if they don't find all of them, I'll do your chores or something."

Renee's at least good about doing chores, it's something to do and alleviates boredom. Breaks up the time between having to throw the Overlord out of the garden car, again.

[notapprovedtrash]

Cal watches the smile light up her face and smiles a bit more, too, leaning back and away from the noisemaker and crossing his arms over his chest as he thinks her offer through. BD-1 beeps a few times, both sounding approving and like he's trying to be a helper and Cal glances at the Droid. He's listening, whatever BD is saying, Cal looks like he agrees.

"BD-1 scanned most of the train, so he knows more about it's nooks and crannies and hiding places than I do. He has a map of everywhere but where the conductor sits. He can probably help hide everything."

He hasn't agreed to the bet, yet. "How long should we give your friends to find everything? I might need to make some repairs on a couple things, considering what happened when the song went off." Wires need replacing. He may be a damn good Scrap Rat, but this was someone elses property and it was harmless property. So he's going to fix what he can before hiding anything. It wasn't junk like the ships he took apart.