Test Drive Meme 022

[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!

Mix It Up

Normally, the morning announcement has you waking up in your designated bed, in your designated cabin, with your three designated roommates. This morning, something's wrong - you're waking up in a bed, in a cabin, with three roommates. But it isn't your bed, your cabin, or your roommates.

It looks like you've all been shuffled during the night. Pity no one's belongings got the memo, you don't recognise any of this stuff. At least you're in your own pyjamas.

Let Slip The Hot Dogs Of War

The carriage-length table and benches of the dining carriage are practical. Sturdy. Easy to clean. It's a good thing, too, because roughly thirty seconds ago, a handful of boiled vegetables went flying across the room and hit someone with a wet splat.

Twenty-nine seconds ago, war was declared.

One overturned bench and three pots of cabbage later, you've picked a side. Or a side has picked you, with a projectile sailing towards your face.

Follow Your Heart

The glittering, futuristic world of Tresques has long been protected by the Ciel Maidens, young women who wield their mighty empathic abilities to subdue and pilot gigantic mechanical monsters called Arc Frames. Now, with disaster on the horizon, their powers have vanished.

Team One

The primary foes of the Ciel Maidens are the Morne, hulking many-limbed shadows born from the nightmares and fears of the people of Tresques. Intangible, they roam the cities feeding on heightened emotions and stirring ill thoughts. Granted emergency Ciel badges and the use of the Arc Frames, team one are to combat the Morne wielding happiness, friendship and love as their weapons. Miniskirts are optional.

Team Two

Camille, ace of the Ciel Maidens, has disappeared, after sealing the empathic powers of the entire order to avoid the loss of any more Maidens to tragedy such as that killed her partner and destroyed their Arc Frame. Team two, based in the order headquarters, are to find out as much as they can about the fate of her beloved, find Camille, and convince her to unseal the powers of the Ciel Maidens.

Team Three

The Ciel Maidens have scattered to the far reaches of Tresques, seeking to restore their own powers and their confidence in themselves and each other. Some are so affected as to have birthed Morne of their own, the creatures possessing the Arc Frames and wreaking havoc. Team three are to search for the Maidens and bring them home.

Comments

[labcatte]

"No damn idea," they reply, dragging their hand--and it was more or less a hand, even if their feet were more paw-like--down their face. "Stupid train shenanigans, I guess. And of course all my clothes are in my actual room."

[helborn]

"... Oh." Yeah, that would probably be a problem. "Do you want to borrow a hoodie so you can get back to your room?" It might not fit the best, but at the very least they can tie it around themselves.

[labcatte]

They smile despite themselves. "Yeah, actually," they say. "My bottom half's sort of covered but, well..."

They gesture to their exposed flat chest.

[helborn]

He nods and digs through his bag for a moment before pulling out a purple hoodie and tossing it to them. "There you go. Mind if I walk you back? Not like I think you can't, but I could use a shorter walk to stretch my legs."

Or. Leg, singular. But shh.

[labcatte]

They wiggle into it pretty quickly. "I know it's just your train team," they say, "but I like the color. But no, I don't mind." And they hold out an arm for him.

[helborn]

"Yeah? The train didn't put me in any of my favorite hoodie colors, I call bullshit." He grins a bit though and opens the door for them as they walk out.

"I don't think I ever asked - do trains exist where you're from?"

[labcatte]

That gets Bacon to laugh. "Sort of. I mean, they don't on Mundus yet--though me and Thom Katt are working on it--but they do on Earth. And Earth is where I'm ultimately from."

[helborn]

"Mundus is like a fantasy world though, right? So that makes sense... the city I grew up in has a metro system, but I'd never been on a train before this one." There weren't any jaunts with trains that he was on, at least.

[labcatte]

"Mundane Fantasy Historica is the subtitle, yeah," they agree. "It's meant to be pseudo-Renaisssance, more or less. I've been on a train, though," they add. "When I was a kid, I rode the Pacific Surfliner with my dads. But it wasn't a sleeper train like this. Just day trips."

[helborn]

"That sounds nice. Where did you and your dads go?" He's a little better at not being thrown by people openly admitting they have same-sex parents, but it's still notable for him.

[labcatte]

"Mm, not the whole way up to St Luis Obispo. We got off at Santa Barbara, because that's where Dad went to college decades ago, around the turn of the millennium, and he wanted to show Papa and me around all his old hang-outs... a lot of which weren't there anymore because it had been over twenty years."

So that's probably why Bacon's just so casually talking about dads plural.

[helborn]

"I don't know where that is, though I think Santa Barbara's in California? Sorry, American geography is hard. You guys have way too many states." Canada is so much simpler..." It's kind of sad when you go somewhere expecting to revisit an old haunt and it's just... not there. It's happened to him a few times, mostly with stuff like independent bookstores.

[labcatte]

"It's in California," Bacon confirms. "SoCal, but where it starts bleeding into the Central Coast? I mean, most of my family's still in California, except Papa's mom and she... never actually lived there. My Tia Charley, she lives part time in France with her partner, but even she lives in California the rest of the time. I grew up in San Diego. And Abuelito and Abuelita live up in Santa Cruz--I ended up moving in with them after... well. It's kind of complicated. I mean, I guess I could have kept my dads' apartment, but it would have felt... weird without them. And heading up to Santa Cruz meant I was closer to Silicon Valley and the OWTB headquarters, so I could actually come in physically sometimes. I mean, I could have just remote worked most days and a lot of days I still do, but."

They shrug. "Abuelito and Abuelita are getting on in the years anyway. Even with nanites they're still both around ninety. Someone should be with them just in case, you know?"

[helborn]

... He keeps having to remind himself that this is an alternate world Thorne's relative. It's weird. "Remote work isn't something I'm all that familiar with. Not that it's something that could have worked in the job I grew up around anyway. Hard to prep a body for burial without being with the body."

As for grandparents getting on in the years... "Yeah, I guess so. It's not something I've got experience with." After all, one of his grandparents is Loki.

[labcatte]

"I mean, you could maybe use drones and there's ways to put your mind in a bioroid body," Bacon points out. "But the second is more expensive than it needs to be and the first is... awkward."

[helborn]

"Drones aren't really a thing in my world, and I don't... really know what the second one is." He shrugs. "My world when I left it was... 2006? Just turned 2006."

[labcatte]

"God, I would have been minus ten in 2006," Bacon says. "It's 2047 for me."

[helborn]

"Not my fault you're a baby." He sticks his tongue out at Bacon for a moment.

[labcatte]

They stick theirs out right back.

"Shut up, I'm thirty-one."

[helborn]

"So you're an old fart and a baby. Impressive!"

[labcatte]

"Thirty-one isn't old!" they argue. "I'm barely even a third of the way through my probable lifespan, okay?"