Test Drive Meme 016

[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!

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.

Comments

[ramengroupie]

"I'm not a pet. I'm his partner."

Wormmon is having to correct people all over the test drive today. It's like nobody on this train is used to seeing amazing boys with bugs on their heads!

"I'm sorry if we startled you," Ken says, reaching up. Wormmon figures out what's going on and climbs onto an arm, clinging until Ken can get him settled in both arms instead, closer to where Tsubomi can get a better look at the partner-not-pet.

He won't hold Wormmon out, but the Digimon is here, if she were curious. "They're becoming more common in my world, so..."

And he likes it. He likes not having to hide Wormmon. He likes being with Wormmon.

He likes knowing how it feels to like something enough not to change your behavior for others.

[bloomingblossom]

"No no, it's fine!" Tsubomi said, waving her hands reassuringly. "I shouldn't have assumed! I mean, this train takes all kinds, I really should have been more considerate!"

A beat paused, before she started bowing her head in apology. "I'm sorry I called you a pet, Mr. Caterpillar!"

[ramengroupie]

"I'm not a caterpillar either. My name is Wormmon."

But Wormmon feels a little bad about making her have to bow and everything. So, when Ken-chan holds him out, he streeetches himself out towards her bowed head -

And boops it with a claw.

It's all good.

Ken supposes this is a thing that is happening.

[bloomingblossom]

Did... did it just boop her? Either way, Tsubomi takes it in stride... somehow.

"Wormmon? Oh, like a..." her voice trails off, lest Toei's copyright agents come sniffing around for brand cross-pollination. "I think I get it..."

[ramengroupie]

Ken, blissfully ignorant of their near miss, nods. "Worm" is pretty easy to pick up on when anybody looks at his partner.

To return to the original topic, then:

"You've done a beautiful job in here," he tells her, gesturing to the flowers. "Their blossoms are exquisite."

Ken doesn't know much about the types of flowers, but he and Wormmon like to poke around places when they go on jogs, see what they can see. It's always nice to find a place that's been tended to with care. Sometimes they'll find places where butterflies or moths have laid eggs, and watch the caterpillars, or check up on chrysalises.....

It's the little things in life that add up to the big moments.

[bloomingblossom]

Tsubomi straightened up, and her smile returned.

"It's due to everyone's hard work," she said. "Not just mine. Like I said, this is everyone on the train's garden... I wanted to see if I could make some big changes to help out, but it seemed like most of them had already been put into effect."

[ramengroupie]

"Great minds think alike, then."

That must be nice. To know there's someone else, either on the train now or who had been on the train, who shared a love with you like that.

Wormmon gestures to a flower. "Hey, what's that one?"

[bloomingblossom]

Tsubomi followed Wormmon's direction and blinked, before her eyes lit up in realization. "That's a carnation," she explained. "It's an autumn flower, and it symbolizes pride and beauty in the language of flowers! Though it can have other meanings depending on the color!"

[ramengroupie]

Wormmon's eyes get big as he takes in how there can be this much to learn about that one flower. And it's a flower that you wouldn't usually find around now, either! "Flowers from any season can bloom on a train, huh, Ken-chan?"

"They can." Ken lifts Wormmon and then sets him down so he can smell the flowers, using...whatever....Wormmon uses....to smell flowers. He sticks his whole head in the flower patch.

And comes up giggly, with a stray petal stuck to the top of his mandibles. So this is what pride and beauty smells like! "Eheeee."

[bloomingblossom]

Tsubomi laughs. "He's so cute!" she exclaims. "Do you think maybe he'll turn into a butterfly some day? He likes flowers enough..."

[ramengroupie]

"He hasn't so far." Ken sticks his hands in his pockets to watch Wormmon, fond. Wormmon as a butterfly....That might not be bad, either. (Though he'll love Wormmon no matter how his partner looks.) "Ah, Digimon like him can change their forms. Only under certain conditions, though."

"I get big and strong for Ken-chan!" Wormmon wants to explore more flowers, so he starts inching around in the flowerbed, careful not to crush anything as he moves.

This is not the, let's say, speediest exploration known to monkind.

[bloomingblossom]

Tsubomi nods. So he was sort of like a protector... the reverse of the relationship between Tsubomi and her own partner.

... Chypre. Tsubomi felt something tug at her heart, and she brought a hand to her chest.

"I have a partner that's sort of like that. Back home. I really... I really miss her."

[ramengroupie]

Oh, Ken doesn't like what that statement implies at all - for Tsubomi's sake. He looks over at her, surprised and concerned.

"Your partner didn't come with you?"

Wormmon, in the flowers, freezes. You mean. It's possible.

He could have....

He could have ended up here without Ken-chan?

Or vice versa?

Is that even a THING?

[bloomingblossom]

Tsubomi does her best to smile.

"I'm fine, don't worry," she said. "I'm trying to be strong for her sake... and those of everyone back home, you know?"

[ramengroupie]

Ken certainly knows that feeling, and he can't really argue with it, either. But does her response also mean that she's putting on a brave face? That only works for so long. He's worried for her.

"If you can, try not to push yourself," he advises. "Your partner wouldn't want that."

Wormmon is twitching as he thinks this over. The train could have taken Ken-chan without him? The train could have left Ken-chan ALL ALONE?

(Or him all alone?)

That's

the scariest

thing ever.

[bloomingblossom]

Tsubomi nodded. "Oh, I know not to," she said. "And I have friends here who can support me."

She blinks, as she takes notice of Wormmon's twitching.

"Uhm. Is your partner alright?"

[ramengroupie]

Looking down, Ken realizes that is a....very good question.

"Wormmon?"

"I'm okay." Wormmon tries to turn around. His mandibles are chattering together. "Nothing bad happened, so I don't need to be scared, right? We're going to stay....together....and I'm going to always protec---"

Sniff. Sniffle. Snort.

And then Wormmon jumps onto Ken's leg, buries his face in Ken's pant leg, and bursts into tears.

[bloomingblossom]

That... honestly makes Tsubomi smile. Nervously, but a smile nonetheless, as she kneels down to pat Wormmon on the head.

"He's very attached to you, isn't he?"

[ramengroupie]

Wormmon is not used to other people giving him affection, but he's not opposed. He hugs Ken's leg tighter, but it's - kinda nice? Tsubomi is a good girl. She grows pretty flowers and she comforts people when they're scared.

She can't possibly be as kind as Ken-chan, because no one is as kind as Ken-chan. But she's not bad.

Tsubomi's compassion gets a smile out of Ken, too. "We both are."

"KEN-CHAAAAAAAAAAAN~!!!"

Ken has a bit of a condundrum here. He wants to do more for his partner than just stand here. But his mobility is limited by said partner.

This will take some thought.

[bloomingblossom]

"There there," Tsubomi said. "You have nothing to be afraid of. You're here with your partner, right? That means you won't be separated."

She thought for a moment, then added. "Don't you want to show everyone how strong your bond is?"

[ramengroupie]

Oh, yes. Yes, Wormmon definitely wants that.

He gives this a moment's consideration more, then shuffles back away from Ken's leg. Wiping his eyes with his top set of legs, he nods. "Mm. For Ken-chan, I'll be strong!"

"Thank you, Wormmon." Ken holds down an arm so Wormmon can climb up that and find a better perch. Sitting on Ken's head isn't enough for Wormmon right now, so he settles himself across Ken's shoulders like the world's bumpiest scarf.

"You, too," Ken adds to Tsubomi. "It'd be nice if your partner arrived soon."

Even if some of her friends have come too, why would the train pull someone without their important partner? Is there a different meaning to her presence here, beyond the types of duties the Chosen Children of his world have?

What is the Voidtrecker Express's objective?

Ken has learned the only way to get answers is to move forward. But that does not mean he has ever stopped having questions.