Test Drive Meme 021

[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!

Spring Cleaning

Chores aren’t for everyone. And, as the morning reaches a close, it turns out that they are especially not for wizards.

That is to say, someone may have cast a spell animating all of the mops, brooms and dishcloths on-board, which are now sweeping their way up and down the carriages, cleaning everything - and everyone - they can reach. And animating anything else they can find, for maximum efficiency. Books, clothing, cutlery-

This isn’t so bad in the bathrooms. In the library, however? The armory? Bang, and the dirt is gone.

Open Mic

The ground floor of the music carriage is usually a mess of instruments, but tonight they’ve all been tucked away neatly at one end of the room. Chairs from the upper floor have been carried down en masse, all facing towards the jukeboxes and screens at the other end.

You might not be entirely sure who rigged them for karaoke, but you know one thing: you’re here now, a drink in one hand and a list of popular (by someone’s standards) songs in the other. If people aren’t singing or waiting to sing, they’re cheering friends on, or skulking and trying everything in their power not to be called up, or even escaping upstairs to talk more comfortably.

’Til Death Do Us Part

The world of Abarranz is ruled by the Undying Lords, and has been for almost two thousand years. The civilisation has stagnated - not only due to the immortal council, but also because the majority of its citizens are undead. Some, the rich, the powerful, are able to undergo great rituals to maintain their consciousness and skill even in death; others are unfortunate enough to be dragged into death with neither, and exist as shells of themselves. The greatest necromancers of the planet are harnessing the death of a minor star in the system to fuel a mass conversion of the remaining populace, but the remaining living citizens are those who have already refused the change. Voidtreckers, they cannot resist alone.

Team One

Pockets of the living survive in hiding, but are split off from one another and unable to unify under the overwhelming forces surrounding their enclaves. This first team is tasked with clearing the mindless hordes threatening them, so that they might establish communications, venture out, and join the fight.

Team Two

The best way to escape the ritual is to remove the remaining living to another colony in the system - but the rituals and spells able to do so are all jealously guarded by the eternal council in their libraries and vaults. A viable target has been identified - the treasure rooms of the Viscount Eldermann holds a tome rumoured to contain a mass teleportation ritual. Infiltrating and securing this tome is this team’s task, and while the mission is possible, the traps and guards won’t make it easy.

Team Three

Even with these plans in motion, every second counts. This third team is given the role of saboteur - to interrupt, delay or otherwise slow the Grand Ritual of a Star’s Demise from within the stronghold of the Undying Lords. The dressing carriage - and their SCA wristbands - are at their disposal, the former for appropriate Abarranz costume and pallor, the latter to hide the telltale signs of life, should they have any.

Comments

Ooc: Is Madoka transformed?

[redmeguca]

Eh? You're here too, Kaname? Yeesh, it's like a Mitakihara City reunion here.

[Momo pops her head out to burn a few rags, and turns curiously to Madoka.]

Though there are a few new faces, huh? Momo-chan, this is Madoka Kaname. Madoka, this is Momo, my Growlithe.

[Kyoko sends a few Rosso Fantasma clones out to deal with the cleaning army so they can talk in peace.]

So, when did the train pick you up?

nope! i took madoka from before she makes a contract, so she doesn't have a magical girl ring either

[happyends]

[ Thank god that Kyoko is around. Her efforts do give them a bit more space to talk under the current - chaotic - circumstances.. and since Madoka is pretty surprised, she isn't even thinking too deeply about the kind of power she can see Kyoko use right now. Her attention is just fully on the other girl in front of her instead. ]

Ah.. It's nice to meet you! [ Said to Momo, of course. Madoka wouldn't be Madoka if she didn't take the care to properly and friendly introduce herself even to a Pokemon.. Although she may not be realising just yet that it's exactly what that dog-like thing is.

No, for now she's just focused on answering the other's question. ]

And, um.. it's been a long while. I think it's about nine months or so since I first showed up here..

[redmeguca]

That's not exactly what I meant. Let me rephrase that. What was the last thing that happened to you before you got on the train?

[Momo, for her part, gives a polite bark in response.]

[happyends]

[ Wow, Kyoko, maybe just.. let her not answer that one, okay. Especially when she isn't too sure what the last thing is that the other girl remembers, and Madoka sure doesn't want to dump any facts that are too startling for her out of nowhere..

It's the entire reason why Madoka doesn't answer right away. Instead the girl is quiet, thinking. Trying to think real hard of what the best way to answer would be here. ]

I.. um. I was going to fight Walpurgisnacht.

[ That should be safe enough, right.... And technically not false! ]

[redmeguca]

That tells me less than it really should, but that's Akemi's fault, not yours. I'm guessing I was already dead or, uh, otherwise indisposed at the time? 'Cause I know there are timelines where the other option happened to me.

[happyends]

.. huh?

[ That small sound of surprise escapes her first and foremost. Because what Kyoko is saying takes Madoka totally by surprise. Not the information itself, since she's heard as much from Homura too, but more the fact that Kyoko is the one saying it. ]

Y-You.. You know about all of that..? [ That sure wasn't the case the last time she saw Kyoko.

Then again, the last time she saw Kyoko, the other didn't have a puppy either. ]

[redmeguca]

Yeah. I heard about Akemi's whole time loop deal from... Well, another version of you, sort of. Kana's hard to explain. Then there's this place where I was before the train picked me up where I actually saw visions of other timelines. Some worse than the one I'm from, some better. I even saw one where I actually got through to Sayaka and stopped her spiraling.

[happyends]

[ It sounds like there's a lot here that's hard to explain, really.

Although mostly on the other girl's part. There's actually less and less Madoka has to explain, she feels, the more she's hearing from the other girl. ]

Oh, um.. Yes. What I remember is.. you tried to save Sayaka-chan. I went with you, since we thought maybe we could get her to turn back to a human, but.. [ She shakes her head, biting her lower lip. It's a long time ago now, but still a painful memory. ] It didn't work. And you sacrificed your life to destroy her, so she wouldn't hurt more people or suffer by herself..

[redmeguca]

Yeah, that's about what I remember. Difference is, I fell through a hole in reality and popped out in a broken universe instead of dying. Was kinda pissed that I didn't get to keep my promise, but I'm in a better place now, mentally. I've got, you know, actual reasons to live now.

[She picks Momo up out of her jacket and holds her with one arm, the other granting pets.]

[happyends]

That's.. That's good.

[ Even if everything else is confusing, at least this much Madoka can agree on. It's a good thing. Kyoko deserves reasons to live. No matter how short of a time Madoka has known the other girl for - barely any time at all, really - she still fiercely believes as much after seeing Kyoko fight Sayaka, after hearing the things the other girl told her right before that. ]

I want you to live. [ So much so that even Madoka - as hesitant as she can be at times - doesn't hesitate to tell her this now. ] Don't worry about Sayaka-chan. I'm.. I'm going to help her. Once I'm back home.

[redmeguca]

I know you will. I've seen what happens after you make your wish, and it's beyond anything I could have imagined. The Law of Cycles not only saves everyone, it changes everything.

[happyends]

.. really?

[ Now that's surprising on Madoka's part. Because while she knows a lot about the fates of the other girls, it's not like she knows how exactly things are going to end for her. Sure, she knows what she wants to wish, and she's well aware that it'll probably have very big personal consequences for her.

Consequences that'd mean she would never be able to return to a normal life. But something to the extent that Kyoko is saying.. Madoka hasn't been able to quite imagine as much. ]

I-It's that big..?

[redmeguca]

Madoka. It's no exaggeration to say that you become a goddess. Your wish makes you into a living natural law. There's one downside though, and it's a big one. If it were anyone but you, I'd probably think it would shake their resolve. I'll tell you if you want, but if you want me to keep it quiet I'll respect that too.

[happyends]

[ That's a big decision to suddenly make. Knowing about what's going to happen in the future or not.

It's why she goes silent for a moment, unsure of what to say, but then the girl briefly shakes her head. ]

.. It's okay. I don't have to know. [ Especially since what Kyoko already said is so mind-blowing. Her, a goddess..? ] I'm really just glad to know already that things would turn out fine somehow. I was really worried someone like me wouldn't be able to set everything right..

[redmeguca]

I mean, things still aren't perfect. Magical Girls still fight and die, just not against Witches. Although, getting power from Wraith Cores instead of Grief Seeds does mean that it'll actually be in Kyubey's best interests to keep us happy and healthy instead of sabotaging us at every turn.

[happyends]

[ .. Wraith.. Cores? Are that what the things magical girls fight will be called then? Madoka didn't even think if anything would replace the witches, really. She only thought about helping all the magical girls who had turned into witches, who would yet still turn into witches.. ]

Well.. As long as everyone is even just a little bit happier, then I'm already a bit relieved..

[ No matter what she has to sacrifice for her. She clasps her hands together. ]

Do you come from a world like that..? Or is it just one of the timelines you saw?

[redmeguca]

Nah, it's just something I heard about. I'm from the old timeline, though maybe time knot is closer to the truth. Speaking of, keep an eye on Akemi. She keeps her memories of the old timeline and does something stupid: telling Kyubey about it. Including about Witches, which are way more energy efficient than Wraiths. You can probably guess how that turns out.

[happyends]

.. Homura-chan did..?

[ She sounds a bit confused. ]

Why would she do something like that though? She was the first one out of all of us to suspect him.. [ So Madoka really doubts the girl would bother talking much with Kyubey at all, let alone spill the secret about witches to him in a world where only she (because of the time travel powers?) would remember those. ]

[redmeguca]

Tch. That... ties in to the thing you didn't want me to tell you. Aside from that, I think she just plain lost a few brain cells in the change.

[happyends]

[ Well, she can't say much to the first part.

But the second part.. her smile turns a little more awkward. ]

Kyoko-chan, you shouldn't say stuff like that about Homura-chan.. I-I think it's important that we all get along, especially here!

[redmeguca]

Hey, I see stupid, I call it out. Especially when the stupid is coming from someone I know is smarter than that. And you know she'd do the same thing if it were me.

[happyends]

I would tell her the same if she said it about you!

[ Hey, she's stood up against Homura before when the other girl was being mean about Sayaka, okay. This is all about equal defending rights. And while Madoka sure hasn't known neither Kyoko nor Homura as long as she has known Sayaka, they're all from the same world. All magical girls-- well, Madoka not really, not yet, but still.

It feels like they have to at least be able to rely on each other. ]

[redmeguca]

Don't bother, Akemi's earned call out rights. If anyone had actually listened to her, things might not have gone to shit as badly as they did.