voidtreckerooc | Test Drive Meme 016

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Test Drive Meme 016

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!

Silence in the Library

The library is a double carriage. Downstairs is brightly-coloured, with cover posters across the walls, tables and chairs in the strong colours of the team uniforms, and a wooden model train placed as though winding its way through the carriage with carriages of shelves in tow. The walls are shelving, and beanbags litter the floor. Upstairs is quieter, rows of nonfiction shelves with private desks at the end of each row; the sound up here is muffled.

You don't know who, you don't know why, but someone or something has had a bad power day. How do you know? Well, the fact that the characters of any book you read keep coming to life as tiny versions of themselves and running riot around the carriage... that might have been a clue.

You just wish you'd picked a different book before realising it.

An Apple a Day

Medical is another double carriage, though it boasts one of the few person-sized lifts on the train as well as stairs. On the bottom floor, two of the three rooms are examination rooms, with simple beds, equipment and first-aid capacity. The third is a surgical bay, albeit a simpler one than some passengers may anticipate. All three rooms have ICPs with instructions and manuals for all equipment and a number of medical procedures.

Upstairs, there are four private recovery rooms, with a medical bed and an accessible en-suite. It's possible to check a passenger into one of these rooms, at which point they cannot leave until discharged by the person who checked them in.

Which, unfortunately, you are entirely aware of. You've been here for three days, and you're climbing the walls. But that'll teach you to get injured in such a stupid way. Or so they hope.

Sprockets and Skysong

In which a train arrives among the smokestacks of Little Underpool with some unexpected visitors.

Little Underpool is a township on Void world #30630687444. Caught up in the middle of what appears to be a series of industrial revolutions, the world is in a state of constant, chaotic innovation. Currently, that means that there is a power struggle going on between the skywhaling megacorporation Scrimshaw Inc and the Zephyr Company, an airship manufacturer, over control of the skies above Underpool, and the rapidly diminishing population of skywhales, whose bones are used in most modern airships, and whose blood is a key fuel source for a great number of new devices and engines. The voidtreckers are, this mission, to rescue the whales, rather than any humanoids.

Team One

Infiltrating Scrimshaw Inc, this team's job is to sabotage the tracking drones used to locate the whale pods, to allow the great beasts to migrate successfully away from Underpool. The offices of the corporation are in a series of spiralling brass and bone towers in the centre of the town, connected by exposed cable bridges that run to dizzying heights. Their clockwork guards are numerous, but often faulty, and highly vulnerable to tinkering.

Team Two

This team's job is to hijack some of the Zephyr Company's airships, and use them to defend the whale pods closest to Underpool. Several pods contain whale calves, and cannot evacuate as fast as the larger bachelor groups. The airships are light, and handle well, but their oddly organic design can be rather unsettling. The primary weapons are harpoons and short-range bomb slings, both as deadly against other airships as they are against their original targets.

Team Three

The final team's task is less direct - they must go among the populace of Underpool and spread unrest, redirecting the attention of the people towards the plight of their nonhuman neighbours in the sky, and the wrongdoings of their resident megacorporations. The people are not aware that the whales are an entirely sentient species, which appears to be a deliberate obfuscation by the town's council and sponsors. Your job is to change that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We're still researching it ourselves.

[ Pause. That sounds like he's not giving credit where credit is due. Ken finds it interesting, and helps where and how he can, but...

He's much better at seeing how the pieces fit together once they're already there. Or at digging into whys, not hows (and, frankly, when he thinks metaphysics it's usually related to the negative-emotions side of things; not proud, but that's where he's got the experience, he might as well use it for good now). He admires everyone who's been working to piece this together. ]

--Some friends of mine are.

[ Wormmon continues to gaze upwards in utter adoration. Ken-chan is so smart! But so modest! ]

[He raised an eyebrow at the correction, barely concealing a smirk that might have been very nearly a smile.]

You don't say. [That kind of deflection sounded...very familiar.] You make it sound like you're not researching it with them.

Mostly I listen. [ It's accurate, right? He's...nothing special, here. It's Koushirou-san who's the amazing one, and Miyako-san, and...

Wormmon sits up straighter. Even though he's a Digimon himself, talk about what make Digimon Digimon tends to go over his head, but -

Mister Waver Professor should know exactly what an incredible person he helped out today, and Wormmon is going to make sure this happens! ]

Ken-chan is clever! He listens and then he figures out what it means!

Does he, now?

[busted]

Exactly as I suspected. The ones who speak the most about their talents are often the ones who have the least of it.

[ Ken laces his fingers together, arms looped around Wormmon. Hi pal.

Does he really contribute...? Maybe....he does. In his own way. He's not sure "talent" is the word he'd use to describe himself, but -

He's glad. If he's contributing, that means he's been of help to his friends. ] I'm just looking for the things I can do.

...Come to think of it, I knew a student once, a long while ago. [not necessarily his student, just a student.]

He couldn't do anything without downplaying it, talking about how other mages could achieve a similar result in however many different ways. Not an ounce of common sense to his name, this kid. Reckless, too. But he wasn't stupid by any means; he just had to learn what only he was capable of and celebrating it instead of measuring himself next to everyone else and suffering with what he thought he lacked. I'm sure he didn't find it all that easy, clueless as he was, but it came down to adjusting how he saw things.

[ A student. Got it. (Possibly. He doesn't want to jump to conclusions.)

Ken assessed himself accurately in one regard: he's an attentive listener. He blinks a few times at the words "measuring himself next to everyone else" and their aftermath, but other than that, his gaze is level, thoughtful.

He's being told this story because.... ]

I hope he did adjust.

Who knows? Maybe he got lucky.

[Boy, had he ever.]

What I'm saying is, you seem like a smart kid and it's pointless to sell yourself short. Modesty's one thing, but downplaying whatever you do contribute is only going to start making you believe the idea that it's never enough. That'll make you second-guess where you shouldn't until you drive yourself crazy.

I see. Even when not comparing yourself, if you don't accurately assess your own efforts, your mind can still impose pressure.

[ He'd never thought of it like that before. No wonder this man is an instructor!

And...it's kind of nice. To know that "a student" had been out there like that, not just Ken. ]

Thank you, Professor.

I'll help! [ Wormmon has reached the part of the conversation he understands again. ] When Ken-chan can't believe in himself, I'll believe in him until he does too! So it'll be all right.

[ ....Ken loves this bug. ]

Don't mention it.

[Waver laughed under his breath, shrugging with his left shoulder.]

You will, hm? I hear that dumbass kid had a partner talking sense into him too, so maybe you'll manage to keep your friend straightened out.

Leave it to me!

[ Wormmon puffs up his chest and does his best to look Reliable. Except he's bad at this, so most of what's puffing is his cheeks.

Ken can't deny he's curious about the other kid's partner, but affection for his own is winning out right now. He's all soft, sentimental, proud smiles.

They're both dorks. ]

Hm...well, you look pretty stubborn, I think you'll do okay.

[you're all morons]

[ ...Okay, praise makes Wormmon giggle. ] Gyahehe.

[ Ken, meanwhile, is trying to figure out if there's a non-blunt way to see if the "student's" partner is okay. Or here. Just in case.

That'd be nice. Separating from a partner is hard. ]

...Professor, have you been onboard long?

[ha ha boy is it ever]

Not particularly. Long enough to get a decent handle on the general operation of things, why do you ask?

You seem fairly adjusted. I don't know many people yet, so I suppose I was curious.

[ ....He can't ask, can he.

It has just occurred to Wormmon that Ken-chan never got his book. He waddles to the edge of Ken's bed and makes grabby claws. Give it to him, and he will carry it!

This time, he is sure he can carry it! ]

I guess I’ve just seen stranger things. Besides that, the existence of parallel universes is sort of a given where I’m from, even if it’s meant to be improbable to cross them.

[Not impossible, but highly frowned upon.]

[Shrugging, he picked up the book and carefully gave it to Wormmon; making sure he had a handle on it before letting go.]

Edited (damn phone keyboard ) 2020-09-17 14:49 (UTC)

Your world too, then....

[ That...is fascinating, frankly, given that it isn't the case for everyone. So then, are some worlds multitudes while others aren't? Or have some people just not realized their existence, the way his world only recently became widely aware of Digimon? Why? What would differentiate one world from -

-----Wormmon.

Ken leans forward to narrow the distance Wormmon has to travel. Just in time: Wormmon is holding the book, but he's having some trouble turning himself around to bring it back. In fact, he's. Tipping over.

Ken takes hold of the book as Wormmon ends up flat on his back, horizontal but, thanks to Ken, not squashed. ] Thank you.

See? I did it.

[ The book is on Ken's bedside stand where it should be now. And it's ALL THANKS TO WORMMON! HOORAY!

Okay, maybe the professor man helped a little. ]

Spectacular work.

[...he kind of loves this weird little critter]

Either way, Second Magic—the existence of such worlds, in other words—is far from common knowledge. Magecraft itself is a secret amongst those able to practice it, and we’re talking about the equivalent of theoretical physics or something like that. Not really a widely understood concept, even I’ve only read about it in passing.

"Far from common knowledge"...

[ Well, so were Digimon for a while, though for all the difficulties integrating Digimon into the real world (and vice versa) has brought, Ken prefers being able to have Wormmon with him.

This information shoots down a potential parallel, though. Ken leans forward again, this time so Wormmon has something to cling to in order to help himself flip over; his legs had gone from a wriggle of triumph to a wriggle of "I'm down and I can't get up". But Ken's eyes are on Waver. ]

Does that mean mages who have "partners" don't receive them from other worlds?

Ah-

[The question caught Waver off guard, by how he laughed nervously.]

A familiar like that kid’s...isn’t par for the course. To summon one like that—they originate from the same world, without going too deeply into the metaphysics of it.

[ Oh. Something about this had pushed too far, but either way - it's unlikely that kid, as the Professor puts it, happens to be here as well.

That's sad. ]

I see. Excuse my jumping to conclusions.

[ A partner "originating" from the same world....Definitely a different sort of system. But a close bond all the same. Plus the presence of alchemy...otherworld theory, but as a fringe study.....

He's getting the sense of why there is a mage school, with professors, and subjects, and everything. (Will there be a Digimon school one day?) ]

Magecraft certainly is complex.

...No, it's fine. You don't know the half of how complex this shit gets to be.

[He pulled over a nearby chair, sitting down; standing around so long was starting to wear on him a little.]

'Familiars' for us are things like mice, birds, small constructs we can utilize as scouting and information gathering. But there are some rituals--well, just the one, really--that require the summoning of something far more complex, a self-aware individual on the level of our companion here in intelligence- [A slight gesture to Wormmon] -and completely unrivaled in strength.

[ Wormmon looks around upon being mentioned, which is definitely an intelligent thing to do. ] Me, right?

Mm.

[ A summoning, then - a deliberate choice. Not destiny, not being "chosen", but consciously pursuing an alliance with someone immensely powerful.....And, even then, a means to an end. There's a greater goal to this "ritual".

Is it unfair to have a slightly bad feeling about this? Is that his personal experience coloring his impressions? ]

What might that ritual - be?

[He seemed less like a put-together professional teacher and more like a college RA in finals week of his last semester with no more fucks to give, at that point. Waver sighed, leaning back in the chair and pinching the bridge of his nose.]

...You know what, kid, I've kept my mouth shut about the particulars about this for nine years and I have to admit I'm a little tired of it. I'm a few hundred thousand universes away from any way this information could come back to kick my ass, so why not.

[Then, deadpan:] A war for the Holy Grail.

The short version is this. Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Caster, Assassin, Rider--any heroic spirit throughout history who has ever committed their names to records of note qualifies for one or more of these classes. The Knights of the Round Table, Gilgamesh, people like that.

[...A couple of which he knew a little too well.]

Seven mages call forth heroes from the past in a seven-way battle to the death in hopes of attaining a miracle.

Silence in the Library

An Apple a Day

Sprockets and Skysong

Team One

Team Two

Team Three

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ugh i have a typo above i meant to say he's concluded the partner isn't here

1/2; didn't even notice, no thoughts head empty

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