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

[consider8]

[The awe was practically palpable.] You're from another world, Wormmon?

[Her attention now focused on the wiggly boi. She stands and leans in close. So much so in fact that both Wormmon and Ken could feel Eight's breathing.]

[ramengroupie]

[ CLOSE!

But Wormmon nods anyway, though he's pressed backwards against Ken now. ] Yep. I'm a Digimon from the Digital World. Ken-chan is a human from the real world.

[ In case there were any confusion about that. ]

[consider8]

[The girl let out a squeak that sounds like "Goobahyee~" She does lean back slightly when addressing them.]

I guess that makes me from the Octarian world.

[Eh... no, that doesn't feel right.] ...the Octarian-Squidling World.

[ramengroupie]

Would that mean you're an Octarian?

[ Ken doesn't want to have guessed wrong, but between her saying it first, and, frankly, her appearance....

Then again, if they're going to interact with people from all kinds of worlds, it'd be thoughtless to assume all these worlds worked the same way. ]

[consider8]

Mm! [She can't get angry at the assumption, especially when he assumed correctly.]

Technically, I'm an Octoling. But Octolings are Octarians.

And you are human. Hmn...

[There used to be humans in her world. A long, long time ago. In fact, she was one of the few that knew that humans once existed...]

I didn't know humans would know what shishi-odoshi was. Or bento.

[ramengroupie]

[ "Octoling." He'll remember that. ]

They're parts of my country's culture.

[ - Come to think of it, she raises a good point. The Digital World has various idiosyncratic features in it...but.... ]

Coincidence? Or....

[ Ken has never, in his entire life, accepted "coincidence" as an answer to something that doesn't make sense to him. ]

Ken-chan is going to think now. And when he's done, he'll come up with something really deep.

....I'm not sure about that....

[ But thank you....for your faith in him, Wormmon.... ]

[consider8]

Weemo... [The words were enough to get Eight intrigued, and now the diligent eyes are set on Ken's thinking self.]

[ramengroupie]

[ Ken thinks some more. And then he sighs. ]

My apologies. There's just too little to go on to be certain.

Don't feel bad, Ken-chan.

[ Regretful worm pats. The last thing Wormmon EVER wants to do is make Ken-chan feel bad about himself!

But, to Wormmon's relief....

The thinky expression has not quiiiite left Ken's face. ]

[consider8]

[At that conclusion the girl let's out a disappointed "muunyooo~" Ahh well. Honestly its a decent conclusion to end on, but Wormmon got her hopes up!]

That's sensible. [She nodded.] I think there is enough to suggest that our worlds are connected, though.

[She had an idea how, but... she didn't want to turn the mood sour. After all, why would you suggest that she knows Japanese terms because humans died out 12,000 years ago?]

[Better to change the subject.]

Can I touch you, Wormmon?

[ramengroupie]

Huh?

[ Sorry, Wormmon had been Kensitting. Can she -

He looks up at Ken-chan, then back at Eight. She seems nice, and she believed him when he said Ken-chan was amazing. Therefore! She's okay! ]

Sure.

[ Ken holds Wormmon out for Eight to touch. He may not have been able to determine anything about the connection between theirs, but if he starts to wonder about her curiosity... ]

Are you interested in other worlds?

[consider8]

[There's a soft squee when the girl's hands reach for Wormmon. Despite the apparent claws on the tips of her fingers, the octoling's touch is soft and gentle. Funny thing was that Wormmon felt like how he looked -- a crustacean, but maybe warmer?]

Mmn! Well... [Her palms gently rubbed Wormmon's face before stroking the top of his head.] ...sure! Now that I know I can interact with them... [When you become how your world is small and limited and that there is entirely different cultures and people that are beautiful in their own way, you come to recognize how limited your thinking was.]

It's exciting, isn't it? To go to a place you've never known... to meet people you never would have... to make new friends.

What about you, Ken? Wormmon?

[ramengroupie]

I like going to the real world!

[ Wormmon also likes being rubbed, so this is a pretty good deal! ] Someday Ken-chan's going to take me skiing in Australia!

[ She's....probably not going to know where that is, but Ken isn't about to embarrass Wormmon by pointing that out. Answering the question takes priority, anyway. ]

Making new friends is enjoyable.

[consider8]

[She doesn't. And that's okay.]

It is.

[She gave Wormmon one final pat before pulling away.]

It was very nice to meet you, Ken. And Wormmon.

[ramengroupie]

Ehueheeee~

[ PATS!

Ken smiles. He hasn't given up on figuring out the connection between their worlds, either. Just because he doesn't have an answer now doesn't mean he won't someday.

He wants to live up to what Wormmon had promised. ]

Is it all right if we ask for your name, too?

[consider8]

Oh! [She didn't say her name? How rude of her.]

My apologies, that was inconsiderate. [She offered a small bow.] I go by Eight.

i stg i checked but i looked again and they did swap names aaargh

[ramengroupie]

Eight-chan...

[ Ken bows back, and Wormmon gives an antenna-bob. So their worlds have this in common, too.


...But why just Japan? ]

I'd like to hear more about your world sometime.

[consider8]

((its all good! I make that mistake too uwu))

Okay. [She nods.] And maybe you can tell me about your worlds, too.

[ramengroupie]

That'd be nice.

Yeah!

...Though, I'd like to inquire, if you don't mind...

[ Ken has been holding himself back, figuring this question, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't matter. But it does. It matters to him.

There is a parallel that matters very much indeed. ]

[consider8]

...sure? [A tentacle twitches as her head tilts.]

[ramengroupie]

[ He's come this far, he won't hide his enthusiasm. Her world had shishi-odoshi. Her world had bento. She'd heard of flower viewings.

Then, the pinnacle of culture! Will she also be able to share in this, the most exquisite of old man Japanese hobbies: ]

Would your world happen to have hot springs?

[consider8]

Err...! [She has to visibly sweat at that.]

...yes. Yes, we do.

[But something about that would make it apparent she wasn't especially fond of them...]

1/2

[ramengroupie]

I see....!

[ Ken sighs, pleased. Whatever the root cause of their worlds' parallels might be, it had the taste to include such a crucial element. ]

How splendid.....

2/2

[ramengroupie]

[ ....Wait. Her tone.

Had her tone been off? ]

--Is something the matter?

[consider8]

O-Oh... well... [She made her displeasure a little too well known... darn... There's a moment where her eyes drift away to Ken's thinking of whether or not to say anything or to leave it at that. But... no, this is a guy that has a tendency to think things through and he would not accept a casual dismissal so easily.]

I'm... not a huge fan of them... [Especially since there was no faster way for a body made out of ink to get splatted than to submerge in a large volume of water.]

[She sighed.] I'm sorry. The Jellies seem to enjoy the hot springs a lot, though.

[ramengroupie]

[ how can someone....

The world is full of mysteries. But she does look sincerely sorry, and Ken feels bad. ]

It's nothing you need to apologize for. I'm just happy they exist.

Ken-chan's hobby is relaxing! Sometimes we sit on the veranda and watch the sun for hours and hours.

Mm.

[ neither of them seem to find anything amiss with this habit ]