Test Drive 020

[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!

Crisis On... An Aeroplane

The train has a game carriage and the VR video games are always popular. A good way to relive boredom as well as teaching some good skills.

Crisis on...This game can be played with two to four players. It is essentially a crisis simulator mixed with an escape room. You can chose the scenario (the bridge of a space ship, a camp in a jungle, a high rise building, a sailing ship etc) and you are thrown into the middle of a crisis of some kind. Teamwork and a cool head are important as is using the surroundings wisely.

Here you are the crew of a small aeroplane in desperate trouble and attempting to land, the wind is strong, your engines are straining and the visibility is near zero. Can your crew land safely?

Dressing up

The Voidtreckers have a new mission and the dressing carriage is open for their convenience...

The mission is taking them to a circus and the clothes sure reflect that. Clown costumes, glittery leotards, many feathers and an overabundance of sequins.

There is make up and facepaint provided as well, hopefully there are enough voidtreckers with expertise to make it look convincing.

Clowning Around

Strange happenings have been happening in Kilpi, a monster ridden land and joining a performing troupe is the best bet of protection outside of the small settlements. The voidtreckers are masquerading as one such troupe, in order to help out a small settlement that has seen a spate of killings. Voidtreckers must put on the show of their lives, investigate the killings and bring peace back to the town.

Team One

Setting up the stage for the performance is a good time for building bonds with the towns people. Everyone knows something, no matter how small and they are more likely to gossip with stage hands than talk to the town guard.

Gather information, set up a stage and get ready for the show.

Team Two

The killings always happen in the evening or at night, always when people are alone. So making sure people are not alone is the task of team two. The show is ready, it is big, it is loud and hopefully enough to draw in the whole town.

Eat fire, juggle, walk that tightrope. Music plays, sequins glitter. The show is a distraction and their task is to be the best distraction they can be.

Team Three

Whilst team two are distracting it is team threes chance to catch the killer. The streets are deserted, quiet and stealth is necessary to remain undetected.

Most people are at the show, but not everyone. Are they in danger? Or are they potential suspects.

Comments

[thawed_pride]

"Because..."

Because sleep so often brings nightmares, these days. He'd much rather work until he's too tired to dream than face that monster in his sleep. But that isn't the sort of thing he's eager to discuss with someone who didn't know the original Vexen.

"I'll lose my train of thought if I sleep before going back to it."

[najaran]

"Then doesn't that mean.... I don't know what that means. Sleep is good."

[thawed_pride]

"It means that if I just leave off now and go to sleep, I won't remember where I was going with my notes when I get back to it tomorrow."

He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.

"It's bad enough that I've already lost my momentum without having to struggle to recall what I was thinking about right before bed."

[najaran]

"If it so easily leaves your mind, perhaps rereading it is for the best anyway," Goligan said.

"Yeah, that," Najaran said. That was what she was trying to figure out how to say.

[thawed_pride]

"That's the purpose of notes, to keep track of the connections I make as I read."

He frowned, rubbing at his eyes. Logically, he knew they had a point. A decade ago, he might have even conceded...but that was then, not now.

"Besides, I simply don't feel like sleeping quite yet."

[najaran]

"Then perhaps while you are here, make notes on what you recall," the cane said.

"Besides, we're stuck here." She pushed her cards all to one pile and slid them into her pouch. "For a while anyway." She yawned. "Let's just get some sleep."

[thawed_pride]

He glanced at the door and let out another sigh, before having to stifle a yawn that threatened to give away his bluff.

"I wonder just what it is that happens out there, that they're so insistent upon us remaining in our rooms for these hours."

[najaran]

Najaran yawned. "Maybe the train just wants quiet so it can sleep too."

[thawed_pride]

"...Has there been observed evidence that the-"

He paused as her yawn sparked another one in him, then turned to give her an accusatory look.

"-train is, itself, a sentient being?"

[najaran]

"Yep," she said. "It answered questions for us and everything."

[thawed_pride]

"Fascinating. It's been...quite some time since I've spoken to a fully self-aware inorganic AI."

He started pacing, mind already turning over the possibilities and implications.

"But that doesn't necessarily mean it must sleep. Perhaps I should simply ask it why we're restricted to our rooms at these times."

[najaran]

She yawned again. "I think some of those were words..."

[thawed_pride]

He gave her a flat, unimpressed look.

"To put it in simpler terms, a computer that is effectively a person in its own right."

[najaran]

Prepare to be LESS impressed. "What's a computer?"

[thawed_pride]

"Oh." A sigh. "You're from a low technology world, aren't you? A computer is a form of machine that can run calculations. In its most simple form, it can solve complicated mathematical problems faster than any human. More complex versions can follow a variety of instructions, and run programs that do everything from simulate games, to functioning as educational tools...the ICP is an example of such a computer."

He waved a hand at the machine in question, without even looking at it.

"At their most advanced, they can think for themselves and adapt to unexpected circumstances without external input. That level of independence is what we refer to as an artificial intelligence."

[najaran]

She is trying to keep up with that. She is. She's failing, but trying. It doesn't help that she's connecting it to things that other people have tried to explain to her. "Like that television thing we were told about?" she asked, skeptical. "Or... like the robots the girl with the hair was trying to explain until she saw Knight and got distracted?" She yawned again and lay back. "Why artificial?"

[thawed_pride]

"A television works on different principles, but robots do run off of computers, yes. Artificial denotes the fact that they were created by hand, rather than developing on their own. How much of a difference that actually means can vary, based on both the skill and the intentions of the creator."

[najaran]

"Then... aren't we all artificial?"

[thawed_pride]

"Oh?" He looked over and raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you say that? I'm fairly certain my parents would have informed me had I been created rather than born."

[najaran]

"Well for one thing," she pointed out, "Birth is a kind of creation, isn't it?" She stretched out on her bunk. "We don't just appear. And anyway, we're created a little more every day from growing and meeting new people and learning stuff. I'm not now who and what I was a year ago. Are you?" She closed her eyes and pulled her blanket up over herself and her cane. "And even beyond that, there's the book of creation."

[thawed_pride]

His expression turns somber when she asks if he's who he was a year ago, and he quickly turns away.

"...No, I am not. But what you describe are all natural processes, things that happen without the direct control of a thinking being. Parents do not dictate the qualities of their offspring, and not even the most skilled manipulator has complete control over how interactions with them will influence others. An artificial being is one who arose purely because someone chose to put in the effort necessary to create something or someone from nothing."

He moved to finally sit back down on his bed.

"I'm not familiar with a book of creation, however."

[najaran]

"That doesn't mean the parents didn't put in effort, just because they didn't have control over how their kids turned out. And I don't know about anyone else, but I'm constantly thinking about my dad and all the things he used to say and teach me." she sighed slightly, but there was a hint of a smile as she thought about her father.

She closed her eyes, thinking, till her cane nudged her.

"Oh, right, sorry. You asked about the Culdcept?"