Test Drive 018

[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.

Happy testing!

Heated Debate

The spa carriage, the newest addition to the train, boasts sunlamps and loungers, massage tables stocked with fluffy towels and a variety of oils and lotions, an enclosed sauna… Soothing birdsong fills the warm, scented air, and the terminals offer several masseuse courses or a playlist of relaxing music.

In pride of place, a three-tiered heated bath in the centre of the room, each tier able to fit five people comfortably.

‘Comfortably’? Well, it could definitely fit more, but it might get a little awkward, depending on your feelings on personal space. Ditto with the sauna, really. But the important thing is, you got here first.

Didn’t you?

Getting Draughty In Here

The lower floor of this carriage is open and sprawling, with two wide, low tables and plenty of cushions and beanbags. The walls are lined with shelves and wooden chests, both filled with games. Board games, card games, you name it, though train themes feature heavily. On a shelf of its own sits a case of Duel Monsters cards.

The upper floor is split into two. One half has a pile of oversized games - lawn jenga, twister, giant connect4 - and the other, sectioned off with soft rope barriers, hosts a screen, a console, and a variety of video game controllers, including four VR headsets.

Perhaps you’re testing yourself in one of the VR Crisis simulators. Perhaps you’re learning the rules of a competitive card game a little too well, and your friendships are suffering accordingly. Perhaps you’ve convinced someone to play twister with you..?

Shiver Me Timbers

You are aboard the PNV Vexation, a first-rate ship accompanied by several escort vessels currently halfway through a voyage across the Sunsea of Yarra, AKA #59352110. The cargo she carries is of utmost importance, and must reach the Shining Port intact.

The pirates who sail the Sunsea have other plans.

Team One

The Vexation has several sloops in tow - the best of which are the Gemstone Heart, the Fallen Lord and the Duckling. Team One is split across the three sloops, and can use their greater speed to good effect in boarding actions. Your job is simple - sink every unmarked ship that approaches the Vexation. The captains are cooperative and daring, and happy to lend out boarding axes and pistols. The pirates are less happy.

Team Two

Back aboard the Vexation, it seems that either the crew are playing tricks, or something more sinister is going on - whispers of spirits roaming the deck at night, strange screams or whimpers in the hold. Lights off the starboard bow. The day holds no such terrors, and shipboard life is mostly ropes, deckwork and stints on the masts, but as the mission continues, the crew are getting more and more restless… Team Two needs to figure out the source of these strange events, before they incite the crew to mutiny.

Team Three

Unbeknownst to the crew, on the second day of the mission, the precious cargo is loaded onto the fourth and fastest of the Vexation’s escorts, the Sun’s Edge, and sent ahead, while the fleet remains as as a decoy. Team Three are sent aboard the Edge to crew the ship and keep the treasure - something sealed in a large, padded steel pyramid - safe. The pirates don’t notice the deception, but the sea serpents definitely do, and with just one serpent able to wrap its entire length around the Edge, the third day is a harrowing one.

Comments

[melodiouspacifist]

"Oh, you know, this and that." Demyx said with a dismissive grin and changed the water into a ball. "I can make all kinds of shapes!"

He was literally just playing in the water.

[fun_thementalist]

"Can you make a face?" Gen asked, leaning in to look a little. "That's really extraordinary."

Of course, he wanted to know if it's a sort of thing that could be taught, but he'd let the new guy play around and show off first.

[melodiouspacifist]

"I mean, sure?" Did this guy mean like a happy face, like a water emoticon? That was what he got when he morphed the water in something else.

[fun_thementalist]

"Cool," Gen said, honestly, even if some of his cheer was his facade. He sat down near the hot tub and grinned hugely. "Can I see?"

[melodiouspacifist]

"Sure, sure." Demyx chuckled a bit and morphed the water as requested. "Ta-da!"

[fun_thementalist]

And, perhaps gratifyingly, Gen clapped, like he was impressed.

"That's amazing!" Gen said again, not letting on that there's more to this than just enjoying magic. "Do you just play around with this, or - what kinds of things can a guy use this magic for?"

[melodiouspacifist]

"What's wrong with playing around with it?" He chuckled lightly, at least, playing with the water amused him.

"This and that, you know." Demyx said, sliding away from the question. "It's great if you're ever stuck needing a drink!"

[fun_thementalist]

Well, that's a familiar sort of side-step, isn't it? But Gen didn't call him out. Revealing someone who's trying to seem harmless didn't really do much, when they were actually being harmless in that moment.

Demyx seemed like someone to keep an eye on it. Gen giggled. "Oh, you're misunderstanding me. Playing around with that is exactly what I would do if I had that kind of power! I'm an entertainer, you see. I don't suppose that's a trick you can teach others, my friend?"

[melodiouspacifist]

Of course he was a harmless, playful guy just sitting in a warm pool of water, nothing exceptional about him at all.

"Uh, I don't think so." Demyx said with a bit of a laugh. "I'm not even sure how I'm doing it." He shrugged. "It's kind of natural? I'm sure some smart guy knows how it works."

That wasn't him.

[fun_thementalist]

"Oh, well," Gen sighed a little. "Still, it seems really cool. And I bet it's all the better you can do it so naturally, instead of it being a complicated sort of trick.

He covered his smile, playfully. "And I'm not really someone with those kinds of smarts, either. The sort of tricks I'm able to figure out are these - "

An ace of spades was pulled from mid-air, apparently, and twirled in his fingers. "If you needed someone smart, then you'd need to speak with my friend - he's the smartest person on this train."

[melodiouspacifist]

"It's pretty cool." Demyx liked his powers, for whatever that meant.

He smiles, but the trick is not actually impressive as Luxord pulls that trick all the time. "Huh." He said, unfortunately unimpressed.

"Oh yeah? Nah, I don't need to hear complicated stuff, I just let the smart people deal with it." A smile, a very innocent smile.

[fun_thementalist]

Gen just slumps a tiny bit in disappointment. "Ah, an old trick for you, in that case? I've got better ones up my sleeve, but I just really lack the equipment. Unfortunately, I can't simply bend water to my will, that'd make my illusions a lot easier."

He winked.

Really, though, the more this man talked, the more familiar he was. As if they both wore the same sort of mask. "I just figured I'd offer! It's not as if I'm really good at that kind of high-level thing either. My name is Asagiri Gen, by the way - what's yours?"

[melodiouspacifist]

"I know a guy who does card tricks or whatever." He said, with a bit of a shrug.

"It's Demyx." He grinned. "Nice to meet ya."

[fun_thementalist]

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Gen told him. He laughed a little. “Well, nothing I can do right now would really impress you, that’s a disappointment.”

“Unless he didn’t happen to dabble in fortune telling?” Gen continued to joke around a little.

[melodiouspacifist]

"Kinda, but I wasn't really listening." Demyx admitted with a bit of a grin and a shrug.

[fun_thementalist]

"Fair enough, if that kind of thing doesn't interest you," Gen said with a little regret. "All I've got left are jokes."

[melodiouspacifist]

He chuckled lightly and waved him off a bit. "Ah, I just don't get it! Sure, hit me with a joke."

[fun_thementalist]

"Hmmm," Gen said, tapping his chin. He sensed a theme here, so he asked Demyx, "What did a block of ice say to a glass of water?"

He grinned and finished, "It said, 'I was like you, once, but since then, I've become a lot cooler.'"

[melodiouspacifist]

Demyx rewarded Gen with a chuckle. "Good one." He grinned, it wasn't too bad, actually.