Test Drive Meme 015

[voidtreckermods]

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

1. Post with your character, including their name and series in the subject. We’ve written out some prompts but feel free to make up your own, you have a whole train to play with!

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

3. Have lots of fun. Mandatory, mod-sanctioned fun.

Happy testing!

A Quiet Place

A double carriage with a staircase at each end, the quiet coach has five booths on each floor. With frosted glass doors, locks on the inside, and a pair of comfy benches each, they’re luxuriously private on a train that’s anything but. There are no ICP screens, and each booth is completely soundproof.



Granted, two of the rooms downstairs have been merged in an act of vandalism and are now a workshop-slash-forge, but that has its own attraction. Plenty of things to mess with, plenty of boxes of scraps. The main tinkerer’s not home. Hey, isn’t that a welding torch?



No? Well, you were early enough to snag a room for yourself. Perhaps you’re not alone, or you’re expecting company. Or maybe you forgot to lock the door, and now someone’s in here with you. Awkward.

Too Many Cooks

Once a single room, the kitchen now sprawls over two floors. Banks of industrial electric ovens, a long, steel countertop facing them. Cupboards full of oven trays and pans, racks of implements and appliances. On the first floor, sinks and modern appliances, and cupboards full of crockery.



This month, the month of Harrow, the recipes are centred around chocolate. Chicken Mole, chocolate ravioli, cocoa chilli… it may begin to taste a little sickly sweet after the first week. Fortunately, there’s plenty of room for experimentation as people start to beg for other meals. And a lot of chocolate going spare.



And when the preparation is finished, and the meals have been sent over to the dining carriage… there are stacks, and stacks, and stacks of plates. Pots. Cutlery. And no dishwashers.



Well, no, that’s not strictly true. You’re there.

Allegorical Devices and Other Foes

The world of Torcera, designation #450720816. With a civilisation level roughly equivalent to the medieval ages, the train has deposited its Voidtreckers in a castle town, in which several kingdoms have assembled for an annual tournament. Banners fly from every roof, chattering squires and servants tug mounts this way and that. Some resemble horses with trailing antlers and four lidded eyes, others great flightless birds, and a third popular choice is a species of lanky winged dogs, albeit for the sake of fairness their wings are strapped loosely to their saddles. As a world ignorant of Void travel, you have all been given access to the dressing car’s voluminous stores. Dresses, chainmail, jerkins, or even a few suits of full plate… and plenty of hooded capes. Evil is afoot at the tournament, and you are to root it out.

Team One

Courtiers and their adjutants have travelled from all corners of the planet to assemble for the tournament; the empress herself is said to be participating, and stakes are high. Your team has been tasked with determining the identity of the empress in the tourney, and the identity of her foes, so that Team Two can move in. To this end, you are to mingle with the court and, if necessary, break into personal quarters. Brief instruction in protocol will not be provided.

Team Two

Once you know the identity of the Empress, you can move to defend her - you’re relatively sure she’s either the helmed hedge knight of the crested monlion, or the masked outrider with the seagoose crest and a mount with plumage of deepest blue. But you can’t be sure, and until you are, you’re to sign up for the tourney and look for troublemakers. The melee will be held in the afternoon, and tomorrow the individual lists. Mounts are available, as are a staggering number of weapons. Ideally, the final round would be a number of Voidtreckers, and the Empress. How to arrange that?

Team Three

Team One is in the court. Team Two in the lists. And you, Team Three, are amongst the common folk. Rumours abound, the atmosphere is festive, and several events are open to ordinary citizens on the second day, including one bohort with a single wish of the Empress as the prize. No great problem, perhaps... if not for the tales of a younger brother, long lost, looking to usurp the throne. Unrest is stirring in the town behind the colourful stalls and laughing children, and it's up to you to determine where, and why.

Comments

[light_of_willpower]

"I can only imagine." Trunks murmured. "I, don't really have a job. Aside from trying to keep people safe. World's too unstable."

[nutkrusher]

"There are no jobs if the world isn't safe," Cassie says. "Someone's gotta make sacrifices so that Wycliffe P. Shitgobbler III can go to his day job as Senior Vice President of Whatever-the-Fuck at Who Gives a Shit, Incorporated."

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks blinked, then kept his head down while shaking it softly. "Is...this where I mention that Mom was the president of Capsule Corporation? Before things went to hell, that is." To be fair, Capsule Corporation had also been responsible and involved in saving the world many times thanks to Bulma. As well as improving life via capsule technology.

[nutkrusher]

"No disrespect to any girl who chases that bag," Cassie says. "Besides, you said your mom was a scientist, right? 'S'not like she puts in 9-to-5 at an advertising firm."

[light_of_willpower]

"Grandfather invented capsule technology, and Mom helped refine it. And she's helped save the world a few times herself." Trunks said with some pride. "She built the time machine I use. Science, engineering, she's a genius!"

[nutkrusher]

"Sweet," Cassie says. "What kind of capsules are we talking about here?"

This icon seemed most appropriate

[light_of_willpower]

"Ask me back on the train to show you." Trunks offered with a grin. "Storage capsules. You can store almost anything in them that isn't living, depending on the grade of capsule. From Houses, to cars, to bikes, to utilities."

[nutkrusher]

"I'd like to see that," Cassie says. "I know a friend back home who'd love to see that."

Beat.

"Wish I had me a time machine, too. I know a couple people I'd go back and warn myself not to date."

[light_of_willpower]

"Sadly, 's not how time-travel works. Most you'd do is change a different timeline so you didn't date them." Trunks murmured, thinking more about that than her mentioning dates.

[nutkrusher]

"Oh," Cassie says. "Star Trek reboot rules."

She pauses, thinking over her words for a moment. She tries to see the situation the way her mother would - like a strategist.

"So...whatever you're doing in the past won't affect your timeline. Were you hoping to bring that guy who got sick and died back with you to the future?"

[light_of_willpower]

Star Trek?
"I took back heart medicine for him, and warned them. I'd hoped to prevent the androids from appearing in their timeline, and to keep Goku from dying." There's a sigh, and Trunks reached up to brush his bangs back in light frustration. "I guess I'd hoped I'd change my world's past, but ignored it. Still, if I can keep my world's horror from happening, then it's worth it."

[nutkrusher]

"And if you stop them in one timeline, hopefully you'll know how to do it in yours," Cassie says.

They draw closer to where the tournament entries seem to be congregating. She lowers her voice.

"I've met a couple people who've fought for worlds that weren't theirs. Heard stories about a few more. It's a good reason to fight."

[light_of_willpower]

"Something like that, although it's not quite so simple." Trunks agreed, but it would have to wait. He lowered his voice too--soon they'd need to see about weapons, and then prepare for the tourney. "I can't let what happened to my world, happen to another if I can make a difference." There is iron-determination in his voice.

[nutkrusher]

"It's someone's world," Cassie says. "That's enough."

Fighting for strange worlds is why this train exists. Even if they recruit through...questionable methods.

A number of fighters gather around a series of racks, on which weapons are stacked. Cassie grabs a polearm and begins to test its heft in a small clearing nearby.

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks surveys the racks carefully, heading for the ones with broadswords. Keeping a vague eye on Cassie in his periphery, and admiring her form. Definitely going to ask for a spar when they get back to the train.

In the meantime, it took him a bit. Testing different blades for weight and balance. None felt like his sword, but he didn't have his own so he'd have to make due. Eventually he found one that he felt would work, and strapped the sheath on over his shoulder and across his back. Heading over to where Cassie is, before doing practice swings and strikes of his own to get used to the lighter weapon.

[nutkrusher]

Cassie's quite impressed by his own form, of course. She smiles and nods as he arrives, holding her weapon by her side.

"This is gonna be fun. I can already tell."

[light_of_willpower]

Fortunately he's thinking in terms of how she moves in a fight, more than anything else. Or he'd be bright red. "It's lighter than I'm used to, but it's a sword. Here's hoping we can find the Empress and keep her safe."

But it would be fun in a way...

[nutkrusher]

"Yeah," Cassie says. "If she's competing, I'm betting she's rich enough to own a horse. She might be in the joust."

[light_of_willpower]

"But would she want to advertise her wealth?" Trunks responded, trying to think strategically. "Especially since I know I have no chance in the joust, so won't do much good in helping find and protect her there."

[nutkrusher]

"The big dogs at the tournament are probably conspicuously wealthy as it is," Cassie says.

"We should go where we'll stay in the longest. We'll be of more use when we're up close and in the thick of it."

[light_of_willpower]

"The general melee then." Trunks agreed. "It would help if we had any more information to try and find the empress."

[nutkrusher]

"Team One should be helping us with that," Cassie says.

"But it's a safe bet she'll have expensive armor, and a helmet to cover her face."

[light_of_willpower]

"Probably as covered a helmet as possible, so we can eliminate anyone with only a half-helm or no helm." That would be a good start.

[nutkrusher]

"A good lead to start off with," Cassie says.

Cassie pauses, then cracks another smile as she extends a hand.

"Lead on, young prince."