Test Drive 017

[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!

Pumpkin Patch

It seems the ingredient of the month is pumpkins. The store room is full of them, in all sort of sizes all ready to be made into delicious meals. Pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin seeds, stuffed pumpkin, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin pie. All the recipes are on the ICP and are easy enough to follow, even for those who have never seen a pumpkin before in their life.

Get cooking or perhaps passengers from worlds with Halloween festivals wish to carve the pumpkins first, creating grotesque faces or fancy works of art.

Hopefully no one eats a masterpiece!

Movie Wars

The Cinema carriage is as tall as a double carriage, but has only the one floor. Instead it features sloped seating. To enter the carriage from the sleeper carriage side you must first go upstairs. You enter at the top of the carriage, in the centre aisle with paired seating sloping downwards on either side. On the opposite wall there is a large screen and there is a door to the left of the screen once you get to ground level, to allow you into the next carriage.

On the right of the screen there is an ICP and in this carriage it has a catalogue of films and TV series. There are hundreds to chose from.

Hundreds of films to chose from and hundreds of passengers to share it with. Choosing what to watch can be difficult, agreeing what to watch can be impossible.

Are they a fan of Merry Little Voidtrain- the long running cartoon series about a Voidtrain and captain Kheli. Or perhaps a hard hitting drama about cross alien-species romance. Or an action film? A heal tapping musical about robot mice?

Choose a film, try not to argue, grab some popcorn and hope your fellow cinema goers understand cinema etiquette...

Spookstown

A series of mysterious events have struck a small town. The Voidtreckers are in need of help.

The train has brought the Voidtreckers to the town of Carcel. It is a small town with a small population in a world that is low in technology. A town of cobbled streets lined with gas lanterns. The occasional carriage drawn by strange creatures with six legs and long necks. The town is far away from any of the larger population centres of the world and yet it is here where the Voidtreckers must help.

A series of strange disappearances have rocked the town. People vanishing, sometimes from the streets but more recently from their own homes. To make matters worse the town is plagued by ghosts, invisible yet dangerous. They attack by manipulating the environment, throwing knives, tables and even people across a room. The town has descended into chaos and are in desperate need of help.

Team One

There has been some investigation into the missing people and there have been rumours of cries for help in the woods.

A thick, dark, slightly scary woods. The townspeople who are left have lanterns to borrow and promises that the path is safe and easy to follow. Don't worry about that howling, it's just the wind...

Team One must make their way through the woods to find the missing townspeople. Unfortunately for the Voidtreckers the cries and calls for help don't come from the safe paths and so they must move through the undergrowth to find the lost and confused townspeople. What's that creaking noise? Is that a shadow? What lurks in the bushes?

Team Two

Back in the village team two must try and help the villagers who are plagued by ghosts. The ghosts roam around unhindered by walls or doors. Sometimes they are just mischievous, blowing out lanterns, knocking books off shelves. Other times they are violent, throwing objects, throwing people, locking people in or out of their houses.

Protecting people against invisible enemies is no easy task. Help the town gather together, set up barricades, try and hide any dangerous objects before they can be used against the townspeople.

Or perhaps try out some traditional ghostbusting techniques. What harm can it do?

Team Three

Of course all this must have been caused by something. It seems some of the towns teenagers had found a strange cave in their ramblings not a week before. It had been full of strange objects, small gems, daggers, ancient books.

All the sort of things that probably should not be taken from their ancient resting place but of course someone had taken something. Maybe. Few of the teenagers are willing to talk and those that do are unwilling to get their friends into trouble.

Investigate, try and convince them to do the right thing. Round up the items that have been taken and return them to the cave. Hopefully that will end this nightmare!

Comments

Zhongli | Genshin Impact

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

Pumpkin King?

"The pumpkin is not native to Liyue -- to the contrary, it's seen as foreign and exotic. Certainly moreso than anything from Mondstadt, for example, but not so rare as the finer silk flowers that now only skilled horticulturalists can grow."

Zhongli's turn in the kitchen consists of a nugget of knowledge, delivered in a calm tone as he looked over the supplies.

"That being said, the techniques to identify a good pumpkin aren't unknown even in the Lands of Geo. First, the visual inspection, looking for any obvious signs of damage, or rot. A good pumpkin also makes a hollow sound when struck lightly, and the stem atop it should remain firmly attached when manipulated. That will do to start with."

He motioned at a pumpkin, then, inviting his audience to make their tests... apparently having not at any point thought that he himself should get involved directly.

Who Ya Gonna Call

A book flew past Zhongli, narrowly missing his head to slam into a house nearby.

"Tut tut," he said, the mildest frown on his face. "Such behavior in ghosts is simply negligent. You've already caused no end of grief to the people here. Consider on this course and the reprimand you earn will only intensify, to your regret."

Leaning to one side to duck the cart wheel that was the ghost's response, Zhongli took a few steps back to behind the cover of a wall. "They seem very insistent on being banished, I'm afraid. I know the methods of Liyue to handle ghosts of this sort, of course, but the more direct ones require an adeptus."

pumpking

[ramengroupie]

This is all useful trivia to know, so while Ken isn't quite certain about this person's tone of voice, he's willing to work with it. He nods. "Thank you."

"Ken-chan, can I tap the pumpkins?"

Wormmon is eager to help, as well! All like...ten legs of him!

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"As a practical matter, I don't believe there will be much difference if either of you do it," Zhongli said.

Of course, the odds that any of these pumpkins NEED such treatment is miniscule at best, but that hadn't stopped him from relating the information!

[ramengroupie]

"Then I can?"

Ken nods.

"Hooray!"

Waddling up to the nearest pumpkin, Wormmon gives it a bop. He listens. He hits it again. Puts his head against it.

"...I can't tell."

"The stem is firm." Ken has just confirmed this. He kneels to help Wormmon listen to the pumpkin a third time.

Thwock.

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"Considering they're supplied to us by forces unknown, I'd be surprised if any of them were inferior."

Then what was the point of that lecture? Zhongli just wanted to share something interesting!

[ramengroupie]

Ken blinks.

"You weren't asking us to assess them?"

Then what could the significance of his information possibly have been.......

Wormmon taps the pumpkin a few more times. It makes the right noise, he has decided, but it's a fun noise. Until Ken-chan is ready to tell him what to do next, he will listen to the pumpkin.

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"You didn't find the information interesting?" The idea was both shocking and a little embarrassing to Zhongli, who'd shared it purely for the sake of sharing. "I thought you'd be much less interested in a discourse about precisely which spices should be used based on the rank of the deceased..."

[ramengroupie]

He'd been sharing information...to share information?

Has Ken found someone else who enjoys the world for its own sake?

No, he shouldn't jump to conclusions, or project himself onto a stranger. "To be honest, I don't know much about pumpkins," he admits. "Anything you have to share would be new."

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"That was about it for the gourds themselves. Once they came into Liyue, they were subject to fierce competition by the proponents of the dueling cooking schools, the Li and the Yue. This was to no one's benefit, since the focus would then be on which school could prepare the more unique or ostentatious dish, not the most tasty." No small amount of disdain in his voice, there.

[ramengroupie]

"Your world doesn't do jack-o-lanterns?"

That's mostly what Wormmon knows pumpkins for. You make jack-o-lanterns out of the outside and dessert out of the inside. Ken-chan's mama works part-time at a cafe and there's no dessert she can't make! Or decoration she can't put up!

Wormmon is a very lucky bug.

pumpkins

[itwasonetime]

Audience might be a strong word; Alfred had been only kind of paying attention to the explanation of pumpkins as he sorted through a collection of spice and herbs, carefully checking the contents of each jar for freshness. The lull in the other's monologue caught the goblin's notice, though, and he looked up, a rather nonplussed look on his face. "So are you hopin' you can lecture the gourds into cutting themselves up, or...?"

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"I think that would be difficult to achieve," he said, thoughtful. "Liyue, like so much of Teyvat, is home to animate and predatory plants, up to and including the Regisvines of lore, but none of those plants exhibit particularly self-destructive tendencies. Moreover, slicing may not be the ideal means of preparation. The two dueling cooking schools of Liyue, the Li and the Yue style, would each approach such a rare ingredient with an eye towards incorporating it uniquely... and in a means designed to show up the other tradition."

Is any of this relevant? No! Does Zhongli care? Unknown, because that thought had never even occurred to him!

[itwasonetime]

"Eh. Dunno about any of that, but it's a winter squash. It's a pretty resilient vegetable, and it's not like we've got any shortage of the things," Alfred replies with a shrug. "No reason to get intimidated by them. Even if you don't manage to hit on the, er, 'ideal,' you'll probably still turn out something edible."

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"The ideals in question are indeed questionable. The ongoing rivalry between the traditions has resulted in the quality of food in Liyue going down, in fact -- rather than taste, both Li and Yue styles aim for ostentation and uniqueness. A rather sad state of affairs against which some restaurants are at last beginning to rebel."

He wasn't ignoring the implication that he should get to work. He was just missing it entirely, having at no point thought that he was actually being called on to cook.

[itwasonetime]

It's not even that Alfred wasn't interested in what Zhongli was saying - he had no idea what the young man was talking about, but the guy seemed to be either reasonably well informed or very confident about his nonsense, and either way it was kind of entertaining.

But, as had been established, the pumpkin wasn't going to prepare itself. He screwed the cap back on a jar of nutmeg. "Aight, so. How about you find a knife - carving knife or cleaver's probably best? - and you can tell me more while we work."

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"Ah, yes. A knife would doubtless be of great use."

Luckily, the kitchen was set up for the benefit of all, even those who knew next to nothing about being in one. Coming up with a large cleaver, Zhongli set it down by the pumpkins. That's his share done, right?

"This whole experience is quite the far cry from dealing with the deceased."

[itwasonetime]

"Depends on how you're called upon to deal with them, I s'pose," Alfred said with a shrug. "Mind you, Jen hates it when I point out that a lot of the same skills serve in the laboratory and the kitchen."

He picked up the cleaver, testing the weight of it - a little unwieldy in his hands, but Alfred was pretty used to using things made on a human scale. "So what do you think, something simple to start?"

[highsocietyknowledgepower]

"The simplest recipes are often the most splendid. Particularly if your tack is like a pharmaceutical or an alchemist rather than a chef." Which is still better than a funeral director.

[itwasonetime]

"I mean, I'm not much of a baker, but otherwise I do alright in the kitchen," Alfred said, a little absently, as he selected one of the smaller pumpkins. "I'm getting the idea you don't do much cooking, back home?"