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

[magicurls]

All right. I'll see what I can do.

[ She enters and closes the door. These rooms...it's at least somewhat more private than most of the train. ]

The others know about me, but of course I won't tell them about you. We're very short on healers, so I've had to use my magic to pitch in. And if I find the person who checked you in...they should trust a clearance from me, and let you out.

[recurrens]

[ Homura takes a step backwards when Tomoe-san enters her room. The two of them have been on decent terms, since her arrival here. She doesn’t want to ruin it by crowding her against the door. For Madoka’s sake, if nothing else.

Despite this, she finds herself surprised by the other girl’s words. She knows Tomoe-san is exceedingly kind, underneath everything else. But this was more than she was expecting. ]

Tomoe-san… [ She looks away. ] ...Thank you.

[magicurls]

[ She smiles, sincere if thin. ]

I still owe you a few more favors. Madoka told me pieces of what happened after I died...and I know there are things she's still not telling me. But I know you were there for her. She needs you now, and you can't do that if you're stuck here, you know?

[ She gives Akemi-san a quick once-over, gem glowing faintly on her finger before she nods her approval. ]

And don't worry too much about magic. There are people here with purifying spells who've been able to clear my gem...clearing yours without telling anyone will be trickier, but I think there are a few passengers who radiate purifying magic all the time. You wouldn't have to tell them anything, standing nearby is enough.

[recurrens]

[ Well, that certainly does answer that question. How much she knows is another question entirely, but if Madoka was the one telling her… ]

You don’t owe me anything. Not for protecting Kaname-san. [ She doesn’t mean to come off rude, but well. She certainly wasn’t protecting Madoka for Tomoe-san’s sake.

She nods, relaxing every so slightly at the news. It would have been... difficult, if they'd had no way to purify their Soul Gems. Veterans or not, it was only a matter of time before something happened.

And it’s not that she’s actively trying to hide being a magical girl. It’s simply that… it’s useful as the element of surprise. She’d been able to accomplish quite a bit, back home, before letting someone in on her time stop powers. She imagines she could accomplish a lot more, here. ]

[magicurls]

[ Mami seems to expect this and shakes her head, a thin smile on her face. ]

Still...maybe we don't have to be enemies. I'm not interested in convincing her to make a wish anymore. The opposite, actually.

[ That said, she puts in a brief call to the attending medic. 'Akemi-san is just fine. She allowed me to take a look, and everything is in working order.' ]

They're coming to release the lock. It'll just be a minute.

[recurrens]

[ And that, more than anything else, gets a reaction out of her. She snaps her head back to Tomoe-san, eyes slightly wider than normal. It only lasts a moment before she turns her gaze back away, sure she’s given her whole hand away. ]

Tomoe-san...

[ That’s not the only issue she has with the other girl. But it certainly is the biggest, most pressing concern. Everything else, Homura can deal with in time.

She ducks her head, letting her bangs hide her eyes from view. Things have been so complicated here. She’s lost her footing, in a way that makes her feel like it was her very (very) first day at school all over again. ]

I… [ It’s hard to articulate her feelings. But she was friends with Mami once, before all this. She would like to get back to something resembling that, again. ]

[magicurls]

[ Mami politely gives Homura her space. It's so hard to read her...there's so much she doesn't know. But maybe that can slowly change. ]

It's all right. We don't have to decide anything right now. I know you'll want to spend time with her on your own, but...

[ And the door clicks open. ]

Maybe the three of us can have tea someday?

[recurrens]

[ It’s been… a very long time since she has had tea with Mami. She recognizes the olive branch for what it is. And, unlike last time, she’s more than willing to accept this one.

She nods. ] …I would like that.