Test Drive Meme 023

[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!

Dio's Legacy

In an alternate almost exactly like the one inhabited by the Voidtrecker Express, fate went another direction. Instead of the first addition to the train's structure being the games carriage, this train's passengers voted differently.

What makes them happy?

Crocodiles.

The Crocodile carriage isn't a misnomer. It's teeming with reptiles of various sizes, basking under sunlamps or floating lazily in the raised tank built across half of the available space. To be even better for morale, they're all perfectly tame, and unnervingly friendly; it's rare that a passenger is able to cross the carriage without being accosted by some crocodile or gharial looking for attention.

Harvest Void

The greenhouse is a surprisingly bright room, its vaulted ceiling made of a transparent, incredibly tough material that shows the light of the Void along the entire length of the room. The single metal support beam is bedecked in roses. The aisle of grass running through the centre of the carriage is riotous with strange plants and flowers, small stone paths leading off to this patch or that of vegetables or closely clustered fruit trees.

And all of them are laden with produce. Whether a stray spell or a particularly good mood from one of the resident forces of nature, every plant in the carriage has matured at once. Shrubs overflow with berries, rows of stalks groan under beans and tomatoes, apples threaten to fall from overhead branches at any moment.

You may not normally be a gardener, but today it's all hands on deck!

Cold Iron, Warm Hearts

The duchy of Yipre is one of several close-knit factions on one continent, known for both her expansive clockworks and strong links to the Fey. Central to the capital is the Clocktower, the palace home to both the Duchess Stomen and her court of scholars, diplomats and engineers. Home also to a key point in the Ley, where the mundane world and the Fey intersect just enough that one may cross from one to the other.


But the Clocktower is sundered, entire sections of iron and brass sheared away in a great earthquake, and neither world is faring well in the aftermath.

Team One

The gear sprites of the Clocktower are missing, running amok in the streets and squares of the duchy. They're tiny things, fluff, metal filings and dust made quicksilver-fast, with small, glowing eyes and bell-like voices. While normally they keep the machinery of their home running, they aren't nearly as talented with anything else, and are causing general chaos with all devices and machinery they run across. Find them, and herd them back to the Tower. Maybe get them out of the typewriter first.

Team Two

The gateway to the Fey realm is torn, and dreaming magic is spilling out from the Clocktower. Finding the Voidtreckers' minds fertile grounds for its taking, imagined creatures and realms are conjured forth from all kinds of worlds and all kinds of lives. There are many ways to combat these - play them through until the magic is satisfied, for example, or find the Voidtrecker whose mind is the source, and stop them dreaming. It's up to the Voidtreckers on this team to decide.

Team Three

The Clocktower isn't quite in ruins, but large sections are crumpled like tin foil. In other places, steam and magic spill out into the air in a chaotic mix, burning and twisting the air into glittering leaves or long ropes of thorn. And through this, those that called the palace home fight to free themselves from the wreckage. Courtiers, servants, engineers… and, somewhere, the Duchess herself. Help who you can, but find her.

Comments

[writerkick]

That's right. My name is Kotoha Kakimoto.

[She lowers her head politely.]

I don't quite know why I'm here, though... I'm just a bookstore owner.

[intelinside]

Phineas Mason.

[He nods back to her, smiling a bit, then it fades and he sort of half-shrugs..]

I don't know if there's much logic to who gets brought here. I've seen at least a couple of kids around... and a cat.

[writerkick]

It's nice to meet you, Mr. Mason.

[English is not her strongest suit, but fortunately, the train automatically takes care of that, doesn't it? It's weird.]

.... Wait, a cat? Are you sure it's not just someone's pet?

[intelinside]

And you, Ms. Kakimoto.

That's what I thought, and there are pets around, but I was assured that particular cat is a passenger.

[writerkick]

Is it... I realize how bizarre this sounds, but is it perhaps a talking cat? If the train has selected it....

[intelinside]

This is a bizarre situation. [He doesn't seem too startled about it, even saying that.] I wouldn't be surprised if it was. But I doubt everyone here is suited to dangerous missions.

[writerkick]

That's true. There are children here, after all... A rather large number, even.

[teenagers are children, too!!]

[intelinside]

It's a problem. [Teenagers are definitely children!] I'm not sure how selective the Voidtrain's selection process actually is.

[writerkick]

It can't truly be random. I can be certain of that much, but... I cannot figure what it is.

[intelinside]

[Something about that makes him smile.] Neither of us have been here that long. I know what it's like to want to solve problems immediately, but you can give yourself a few more weeks to come up with a theory.

[writerkick]

Of course. It's simply... difficult to control the urge to try to fix everything immediately. When there are children here.

[Kotoha loves children, for some reason. So when she realizes they're in danger, she wants to move heaven and earth for them, even if that's not possible.]

[intelinside]

Maybe someone could convince the teenagers to keep the younger kids out of harm's way during "missions."

[Which would, conveniently, also keep the teenagers out of things.]

[writerkick]

Oh, you are clever. Many wouldn't agree, but any is better than none...

[intelinside]

You have a lot of kids come into your store?

[writerkick]

Is is a children's bookstore, after all.

[intelinside]

So you're a specialist. And you understand child development. No wonder you're concerned.

[writerkick]

[Kotoha nods, a bit meekly from the direct praise.]

That's right. These children shouldn't be here, in dangerous situations. Or, rather, none of us should.

[intelinside]

There are enough would-be heroes out there that if they were looking for volunteers I'm sure they'd get some. Maybe even from the worlds we're apparently always stopping to help. It's hard to say why they're doing things this way...

But it could be worse. Everything that's happening is fascinating. A month ago I would have said that alternate universes were a theory and magic wasn't real.

[writerkick]

I suppose it is important to look on the bright side... I'm impressed that you can find the silver lining like that.

Are you one of those heroes, too, then?

[intelinside]

Heh, well, I've had to get used to strange things before. So far it's always been worth it. Of course, until now I haven't been abducted.

I'm an inventor, actually. I don't usually get involved with fieldwork, but I do like seeing people use the things I make.

[writerkick]

An inventor?

[That gets her to pause.]

What sort of things do you invent?

[intelinside]

Robotics, mostly. Androids, holographic projectors, smoke machines. I've expanded recently into skill enhancement suits, which increase someone's natural physical abilities... or give them something like a superpower.

[writerkick]

That's incredible.

[Kotoha is deeply attuned to the ways of stories, but, well... Comic books have never been her thing. So she, for once in her life, misses the giant flashing sign of 'scientist who gives people superpowers is probably a villain'. The entire superpower bit seems to fly over her head.]

To increase someone's physical abilities... The uses in physical rehabilitation alone are astounding, without even touching on uses such as construction or rescue work.

[intelinside]

[Listen, is it really Phineas's fault that mobsters and super-criminals have been the only people willing to pay for his inventions? Or that he loves committing crimes? Don't answer that.]

I've been working on commission so far. But, given our recent circumstances... [He grins.] I've been thinking about the rescue work part specifically. I'm sure a few people on the train could benefit from my inventions. And frankly, I could accomplish more from a distance.

[writerkick]

[i mean

capitalism IS the root of all evils]

I see... That does sound very useful. Do you take suggestions?