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

Asriel Dreemurr | Undertale

[saveas]

i. getting draughty

[Asriel's been keeping to himself, but he's also been exploring. And of course a kid is pretty quick to encounter the game room.

At first, he didn't really want to play. He sort of just wants to hide somewhere and not have to see anyone. It's nice that they're all people he doesn't know - that's nice for a lot of reasons. But still, the thought of interacting with anybody just feels all sorts of overwhelming. What if...there's so many things that could go wrong. It would have been nice to just fade away before, like he wanted.

In the end, though...it's the video games. They're tempting! He's never seen any as nice as this before!

He ends up getting sucked into playing Space Racer, so much so that he doesn't immediately notice when someone else walks into the room. But it looks like he's just racing against the computer opponents. Maybe he could use another player?]

ii. team two

[Okay, so, they're kinda supposed to be out here looking for ghosts.

But even though all the sailors had stories, it's sure been quiet and still tonight! So maybe Asriel's lost interest a little. Instead, he's laying back on the deck, gazing up at the stars. He always wanted to see them, before. It's too different now, to be exactly the same as he dreamed when he was just a little kid. It's been too long, and these aren't even the stars above Mt. Ebott anyway. He can't find any of the constellations Chara told him about.

(Or maybe he's just forgotten them?)

He doesn't really want to think about that right now. Instead, he speaks without sitting up:]

Does the sky look different in every world we go to?

[consider8]

[Eight is on patrol and dutifully looking into any strange sound that can come across the deck. So far there was no sign of anything, which seems pretty strange if you asked her. Usually by this point there would be some movement of the crew or patrol or something.]

[Bah, she's probably just bored. Nothing to it but to check in with the others to see if there was anything--ah. That was one, a new one, she thinks. Is he asleep? Why would you sleep on a deck?]

[She approaches, only just hearing the question as she is within a few feet of the boy. She looks up, a soft smile on her face.]

I think they would, yes. Different lands. Different perspectives. Different sights. Even the sky has something new to say.

[saveas]

That sounds nice.

[Maybe a little bit sad, too. But that's kinda just how things are. There's no point in worrying about it.

A bit of caution prompts him to push himself up on one elbow, enough so he can see her. She looks like a monster! Not a human, like most of the people around here. It's comforting; he smiles a little.]

How many different ones have you seen?

[consider8]

Just two... and a half. [The half being the projections of the sky lining the underground domes that she grew up in.]

[She approaches Asriel, her shoe lightly tapping his leg.] C'mon. We're on duty. There's time to look at the sky while we patrol around for the source of the noise.

[saveas]

This is my first time. I -

[And he startles at the touch, even though he could sort of see it coming.]

Oh! Uh, o-okay. [He scrambles to his feet, a little flustered.] But I haven't seen anything all night.

[consider8]

Then you can be my backup. [Because despite her insistence, she was more worried about him being prepared to respond. Were there really something out there, he would be in a terrible position to defend himself.]

[She waits for him, giving the sky another look. Truth be told, she is surprised at how she could become accustomed to seeing something so beautiful. Were it not for their mission, she would be just as likely to be sitting and staring along with the goatkid.] Is this really the first time you've seen the night sky?

[saveas]

[It doesn't really matter. If he gets killed by some ghost, well, he probably had it coming. Still, he brushes himself off and glances around the deck again.]

Yeah. I was born in the Underground.

[And, well - he doesn't want to talk about the one time he left it. It'd been daytime then anyway.]

There's a few holes, but you can't really see out of them very well.

[consider8]

[It would matter to more people that you realize, Asriel!]

[She sets the bucket against her hip as she listens. She knows now that there are more worlds that his experience was probably not the same as hers, but still.]

I was born in an Octarian dome. They're these hollowed out half-circles deep under the earth. We weren't allowed to go outside, but we could the inside of the domes would be large screens that would project what it would look like up top.

[Her eyes raise to the heavens that Asriel was seeing.] Poor substitution.

[saveas]

Gosh, that sounds neat...

[Sort of like something out of a comic. He wonders if they ever could have done anything like that - but back in his day, the scientists were all working on the Core, and then, well. Alphys. The point is, they were doing other stuff. Maybe making a fake sky would've been better; maybe not. He follows her gaze upward again.]

There was a part of the Underground with all these blue gemstones in the ceiling. Everybody said they looked like stars, so monsters made wishes on them. But it wasn't really like this.

[.....]

You're not...a monster, are you?

[consider8]

[Nervous chuckle.] I'm sure there are some here and on my world that would call me that.

[She shook her head.] No. I wouldn't call myself a monster. I'm an Octarian Octoling.

But that still doesn't mean we can't be friends.

[saveas]

[Asriel blinks, before - right. Chara had mentioned, how humans use the word "monster". They'd been furious; he can't really bring himself to care.]

Oh. Ha, no, that's just what we're called. I'm a monster.

[Which doesn't actually clarify anything, in his case. That's funny.

It's good she isn't a monster, anyway. She wouldn't know anything about him at all. He already knew he hadn't met her before, of course, but there was a pretty long time before he woke up again.]

My name's Asriel. [.....] Asriel Dreemurr.

[consider8]

[Eight nodded. She wasn't even going to question it. This was a land where humans were still around, demon books led penguin minions, and some claiming to be gods. So he's a monster. No big deal.]

[Suffice it was to say, the meaning of the last name was also lost on her.]

I'm called Eight.

[saveas]

[yeah that's really for the best]

That's an interesting name. It's nice to meet you, Eight.

[.....oh come on, Asriel, you know how to talk to people. Except maybe he never really did, he kinda only ever did have one friend. Maybe two. Frisk doesn't exactly count, he only had like one real conversation with them and he has no idea why they were so nice to him anyway.]

Do you think there really is something here? Like a ghost? We have...ghost monsters, at home, but that's not the same thing.

[consider8]

[Eight give the matter a long think.] Perhaps. Perhaps not. If it is something supernatural, we will have to decide how to handle it then. It may also be someone trying to cause trouble, and we're only making it harder for them by patrolling. Or it could just be some misheard sound by a drunken idiot.

Between the two of us, it usually the last two, 90% of the time.

[saveas]

[Asriel snickers a little, mostly just oddly pleased to be included. His parents never would have mentioned "drunken idiots" in his earshot.]

Yeah. They all seem way too scared.

[It's a tiny bit mean, and he feels a little bad afterwards. Would he, before, have said that? But at the same time - well, it's just some noises at night. He's too old to be scared of that now.]

[consider8]

It's strange, though. [Eight was thinking out loud.] If it was someone that was intentionally causing trouble, then they would either cause damage to things or the sailors would have an idea of who might be doing this.

And this is recent.

So we should probably be on alert. There really may be something out there...

[Whether that thing is a ghost or not remains to be seen...]

[saveas]

[Or they're just idiots scaring themselves with ghost stories.

...he shouldn't say that.]

...maybe. Here...

[Just...just be helpful for once, okay? Asriel cups his paws, and makes a bullet - a little rainbow star that casts a gently shifting multicolored light. He could do fire; maybe he should do fire. That's what his parents taught him. All the stars-and-rainbows stuff is...well, the nicest thing you could say is that it's kinda self-taught.

He likes it, though. And it's not...it can still be okay, right?]

[consider8]

[It's enough to catch Eight's attention. Though she doesn't know what the bullet is exactly, she could tell that is an expression of the heart. Its form seemed designed to be eye catching and spectacular... yet, it also somehow felt a little distant and lonely?]

A light source?

[She's not trying to diminish, but she was curious what made him create this in the first place.]

[saveas]

[Shrug.]

It's just a bullet. Maybe it won't even come if it thinks we can see it. Stuff like that doesn't want to be seen.

[Asriel knows a little bit about causing problems from the shadows.]

[consider8]

[That was a bullet?]

What happens if something touches it...?

[She's used to unusual weaponry, but that's one of the more interesting.]

[saveas]

.....it depends. It can do damage, if I want it to. Some can do healing magic instead, but I don't know how to make those.

[There's the kind monsters use to communicate, too, not meant to hurt anyone. But it's been so long. Asriel feels like he might just not be able to, anymore - and who'd want to touch anything that came from his soul, anyway?

There's no other monsters here, anyway. It doesn't matter.]

games car

[blue_ice]

[ Kaiba spends quite a bit of time in the gaming car, learning various games and strategizing. He's just passing through this time, but he pauses when he sees a new player.

He politely waits until the race is over before speaking. ]

What do you think of it?

[ Market research! ]

[saveas]

[Asriel sort of...bleats in alarm, a little. It's kinda cute.

Except! A human standing over him is sorta scary? The only good humans he's ever known were kids, about his age, and he can't really tell how old this one is supposed to be but he's not in stripes and he's pretty tall...

He scoots back a little before finding an answer.]

Uh, it's...it was fun.

[blue_ice]

[ Kaiba kneels a safe distance away, aware that his size is...sometimes intimidating to kids. He assumes that's the reason, anyway. He lifts a palm in an attempt at a calming gesture. ]

Didn't mean to startle you. I'm just trying to learn what everyone likes and doesn't like about the games.

{ A little smile appears. ]

I'm a game designer, and I want to make better ones.

[saveas]

O-oh.

[Well. He's doing all the right things, at least. Asriel relaxes a bit - he's seen enough different kinds of people in the halls, anyway, to suspect that maybe people here don't mind monsters all that much.

(plus, they don't know anything about him personally)

...gosh, though, does he have anything useful to say about the game, really? Probably not.]

I haven't...played a lot of video games before.