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

Rui Ninomiya | Gatchaman Crowds Insight

[partofthecrowd]

I. Crocodiles...what?

[ What kind of a train has crocodiles?

The unfortunate side-effect of being on board the train was that without the things Rui had at home, she looked like any ordinary young man with short dark hair, blending into the train uniform. The clothes have no flair at all and she's done her best by rolling up the pants to be something like capris, at the very least.

Rui was honestly trying not to think about it, and a walk through the crocodile car - again, who has a crocodile car - was at least sufficiently distracting, especially when a little one came right up and chomped on the bottom of her pants. ]

Hey! That's not for you! [ She crouched down and tried to dislodge the poor, somewhat adorable beast from her clothing. ] My pants are not food.

[ A little help maybe? ]

II. Harvest Void

[ If this was some kind of farming simulator, Rui would have taken care of it all, hands down, very easy. As it was she had no real experience with gardening - it was likely that a single plant on the balcony of her apartment hardly counted.

Rui looked a little flustered and tried to reach above her head rather fruitlessly to try and grab a tomato to help out.

No real luck there. ]

Oh come on, this place is probably falling apart! [ Besides, food like this could look after everyone, couldn't it? ]

III. Wildcard

[ Choose your own adventure! ]

Crocodiles...what?

[officedragon]

[There was a pile of crocodiles nearby. Ostensibly, the beasts were contentedly sunning themselves--but a blue hand stuck itself up out of the pile, gently separating the pile from her person before sitting up and looking over in Rui's direction, a smile on her face.]

She's just trying to make friends--though I will admit she's a bit over her head now, isn't she? Now, now--this is not how you make friends, my dear.

[She reaches over to claim the little one, releasing its hold from the rolled-up hem of Rui's pants.]

Come along, I can think of a better use of your time. [Swimming! From the nearest lounging pool for the crocodiles, a tendril of water rises to corral the errant creature, unceremoniously dunking it.]

There we go! No harm, no foul, I hope?

[partofthecrowd]

Oh, do you think so? [ It could be stranger, then again Rui's best friend was an A.I. program. ]

No, no harm at all. [ She offers a small smile. Rui wasn't the type of person to hurt others as it was, even if they happen to be crocodiles on a strange train travelling through the void. ]

Are these...yours?

[officedragon]

Hecate can't help but laugh, then. "Mine? Goodness, no! Other than the fact that I do sometimes take care of them, but then again, most of us who like them tend to pitch in. The big ones especially can get a bit tough to wrangle, but they like the train denizens. They're safe enough." As safe as crocodilians can get, anyways.

The blue woman nods in satisfaction. The crocodiles were simply being their friendly selves, but it wouldn't do for any damage to happen in either direction.

"No, I believe they're here to serve as enrichment for us, but I do question which way it actually goes for most of us. It's a croc-y road, sometimes."

[partofthecrowd]

[ The pun is a bit of a surprise and gets a smile out of Rui. She tilts her head slightly, considering the crocodiles for a moment. ]

I'm not sure I understand how they're enriching people. They're not like cats or dogs. It seems somewhat illogical, I thought they were far more prone to snapping at people, as opposed to being friendly.

[officedragon]

She thought about that for a moment, Hecate did. "I think it's two things, really. These are domesticated--I believe that's the word I want. Like cats and dogs." Honestly, Hecate could see the point. She preferred dogs, herself, but that was mostly because of them being one of her symbolic animals as a goddess. If one spoke of disposition, she was fond of cats. Or snakes.

"As for my second point, I suspect whoever suggested them was someone who embraced chaos. Yes, most people would agree with you, though. And you aren't wrong--usually these fellows are the sort to snap first, but as I said. Domesticated!"

Though how the train managed to go about that, Hecate had no clue.

[partofthecrowd]

Domesticated? [ Rui's brow furrows a little bit into a frown. ]

Embraced chaos? How can someone want chaos? That sounds horrible! [ She may be shy, but Rui was opinionated about how the world should work. Chaos leads to people being hurt which she would hate. ]

This is...an exceptionally strange train.

[officedragon]

Oh, it is a strange train, that I will give you. [It costs nothing for Hecate to agree to that. Mostly because it's perfectly true.]

You'd be surprised how many folk embrace chaos, though. There are myths that say it was here before everything else, and it'll be the last thing at the end, after all the lights are off and the doors are closed. [She herself professed to enjoy it--to a degree, Hecate does, but she's also realizing she's becoming used to her creature comforts, so maybe she's not as exuberant about her love of chaos as she might have been in the past.]

It brings change. Not always welcome change, now, but it shakes up stagnation and it can make people think. A little isn't bad, but there's always the possibility of too much of a good thing!

[partofthecrowd]

[ She considers that with a bit of a frown and applies it in context. ]

I suppose I can appreciate some chaos, I'm definitely not someone who goes for the status quo, after all the world can be so much better than it is. I don't want the kind of chaos that hurts people.

[ Rui has a bit of a big, bleeding heart for humanity. ]

Change is important.