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

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[immortal_cohort]

(OOC note: given how Teela is dressed there is NO WAY to know if this is a male Barrani or female. I'll be using the female pronouns because OOC we both know who this is, but wanted to put the note out there. :D)

Not everyone labored under the difficulty of a lack of height. Then again, Barrani could often be found around plants. Not that Kaylin had shared all that many of those memories. But she shared enough that the tall figure would be, to Leia's eye, unmistakably Barrani. But there was yet a question as to which Barrani was before her.

Her hair was long and black, a perfect raven fall down her back, which ruled out the only two blond Barrani Kaylin might have ever shared memories of - the Consort and the former Consort. The outfit was of little help since the Barrani before her wore the same clothing as they were given to start. With a difference. On her? It looked better than good. The hoodie somehow managed to look refined and elegant, and it appeared as though it had been custom tailored to her. Even the pants that looked just like the pants everyone else wore seemed designed specifically to accentuate lean height and slender limbs.

A perfect pale hand reached up for a fruit and with surprising delicacy, plucked it. Eyes that were a mix of emerald and sapphire observed the fruit a moment before tossing it aside. Blue eyes, as Leia probably recalled indicated anger, suspicion, fear, and other similar emotions. Green was for happiness and ease. It wasn't that a mix was uncommon, but given what Leia knew from Kaylin, the presence of any green at all in their current situation could be surprising.

As for further narrowing down who this was... The clothing revealed nothing of gender. Kaylin swore that Lord Nightshade was recognizable - albeit not in a good way in the least - just by presence alone. But without a basis to compare with, that gave Leia little. There was only one Barrani present, after all. Likewise Everram was usually marked in Kaylin's memory with an abundance of red. He wore the red of the Arcanum, and usually a tiara with a huge red ruby over his brow. Was the absence an artifact of the train, or a way to further narrow down the list of possible suspects?

But then she turned to examine another tree and Leia would have a pretty effective hint, for the hoodie had actually been modified in one significant way. Significant, at least, to one who understood the meaning behind the hand stitched addition of a predator bird with its wings spread, added to the shoulder of the hoodie. Not just any bird. Picked out in gold was a hawk in flight.

That potentially narrowed the list to about a dozen Barrani. Because that was about how many chose to fly under the rule of the Hawklord. Not many immortals of either stripe would serve the merely mortal, after all. And fewer Barrani would serve the Emperor, even one step removed.

Of the Barrani Hawks, there would be two that Leia would know of above all others, because they were the two that Kaylin knew best, and thought of most often. Teela and Tain. Tain had been the first Barrani Kaylin could identify on sight, because when he spoke his one and only physical flaw was shown. A single chipped tooth. But this Barrani, who was now plucking down another fruit, had not opened her mouth. She could be any of the dozen or so who wore the Hawk. But the way the universe tended to work, she was likely either Teela or Tain.

She was aware of the others also harvesting of course, but had no cause to single Leia out or to think of her as one to be approached. She had no way to know they were connected through Kaylin. But Leia knew. Leia had seen countless borrowed memories of Kaylin with the Hawks, with the Barrani, and with the Barrani Hawks specifically. The question remained, however, what would Leia do with that knowledge?

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[motherofresistance]

For the moment, Leia was simply observing... her? Him? Them? Did those of Kaylin's world have a concept of genders outside of male and female? In any case, to someone familiar with non-human humanoids the way the being moved seemed vaguely feminine to Leia, so she was tentatively guessing 'her', for the moment.

The being's species was easy to guess from what she'd seen in Kaylin's memories. But those weren't quite solid enough for her to be able to identify whether on not this Barrani was one of those whom Kaylin knew personally, or simply one of the others who worked with Kaylin as members of the Hawks. At least the hawk symbol that had been added to her hoodie narrowed it down to those few, rather than having to try to guess from among a whole species.

After a few more moments of consideration, she moved a bit closer into conversation range ostensibly to get a better angle for picking the next batch of peaches. "Excuse me," Leia said as she resumed her Force-fruit picking, "I couldn't help but notice the symbol on your hoodie. You're a member of the Hawks, correct?"

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[immortal_cohort]

The face was a polite mask that gave away nothing, save for the eyes. Those skipped any blue that wasn't pure and shifted straight to hard perfect sapphire.

"I serve the Lord of Hawks," she said, the translator was good, but familiarity would give Leia the awareness that she was probably speaking high Barrani. Her cadence matched. Also the voice was female and the teeth flawless. So not Tain. More, Teela's voice was woven throughout Kaylin's Memories after the age of thirteen. "Was there some assistance that you required?" she asked, ever so slightly arching a single brow.

For Teela's part, she had immortal memory, and in grand scheme of things, she had been a Hawk only recently. Less than two decades. And never in any case had she encountered this woman. However, that didn't preclude her from being from Elantra and recognizing the badge of office. She chose to be wary, but that was hardly a surprise. She was still alive, after all.

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[motherofresistance]

Leia's expression was also polite, but she did smile slightly. "Not especially no," she said. "I just think it's likely we might have a mutual acquaintance. Does the name Kaylin Neya sound familiar?" She had a feeling that the answer would be 'yes', but still felt it better to ask. And was privately pleased that she remembered not to use the word 'friend' casually; she wasn't certain if Barrani felt the same way about it as dragons, but it was likely best to err on the side of caution.

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[immortal_cohort]

The mask stayed in place, but polite fell away from her voice as she indulged in a very Kaylin-like spate of swearing. Though the Leontine sounded almost musical and wrong from a Barrani throat. "What the ****s has she done now?" she asked, sounding ready to swear more, or strangle someone. Or both.

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[motherofresistance]

Leia's smile became more genuine, though she managed not to chuckle. It took a bit of effort though. "Well, that answers that question," she said. "And to answer yours, nothing. In fact, I don't even think she's on the train."

"Long story very short, Kaylin and I met and became friends in a place called Nautilus. Eventually, she chose to return home to your world, while I stayed behind. Until I was brought here, that is."

"I'm Leia Organa." She gave a polite nod as she introduced herself. "And unless I'm very much mistaken, you can only be Teela, correct?"

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[immortal_cohort]

"Another world," she said, and her voice defined skepticism, though some of the hard edge left her blue eyes. "In formal situations, it is Lord An'Teela, actually." Which would explain why her name had never been obvious on the roster.
What she wasn't adding was that An'Teela was actually her last name. And no, she was not offering the rest of her name. If Leia wanted to know it, she could find it out easily enough with the clues she had now. If she tried and failed then clearly she was too stupid to know.

"But Kaylin is allergic to most forms of formal," she drawled, dryly. "What exactly has she told you about me?"

Her back foot shifted slightly, prepared to move if she needed to, but also prepared to lounge back against the tree like a lazy cat.

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[motherofresistance]

"Lord An'Teela, then," Leia said. "It's good to meet you. And yes, I'm well aware of Kaylin's dislike of formality. I tend to dislike it myself, at least when it's taken to excess, but unlike Kaylin, I also know when it is and isn't appropriate to drop formalities. And perhaps most importantly, how to keep my mouth shut."

"And the thing that she said most frequently about you is that I sounded like you when I got annoyed with her. Though she didn't state it outright, given the situations when that happened, it also indicated that she thinks you're a very sensible person. Whether or not she happens to like 'sensible' at the moment."

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars (Wake CRAU)

[immortal_cohort]

So this woman disliked formality but was choosing to invoke it now? Interesting. She stuck to Elantran for the moment, wanting to observe the woman's reactions. Also it was generally easier to talk about Kaylin behind her back in Elantran. Took longer in High Barrani and she had a habit of showing up in the most impossible of places. And from what Teela had learned about this train so far she'd rather see Kaylin back in the High Halls before seeing her here. Especially if she arived without her bracer.

"If you managed to teach Kaylin to keep her mouth shut you'll have done what no one else has ever managed to do. Though we have come close to breaking her foot or shoulder on occasions," she added with the slightest twitch upward of a lip. Which for the Barrani was about the same as loud uproarious laughter.

Oh, Teela could be more expressive, and sometimes was around Kaylin. But this woman's reaction to the subtly - or lack there of - would also give her information.

The requirements of being a Hawk were really little different than the skills needed to survive being a Lord of the High Court; only the stakes differed. Failing to notice something in the line of duty as a Hawk was unlikely to result in her own death, after all.

"Though if she was complimenting you so highly, you might just be halfway worth knowing, for a mortal," she said, her eyes shading closer to green. Her voice sounded bland and hinted at none of her amusement. Where would the game be if she was too easy to read, after all?