Test Drive Meme 026

[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!

Stand Back

The long-awaited laboratory carriage is a place of many delights. And by delights, we mean 'unsafe thaumo-scientific practices'. Whether the chemistry stores, the machine shop and its welding station, the magitech benches sat right next to the physics research area... or the panic showers.

A strange, earthy smell is coming from the biology room. Green smoke is curling under the door of chemistry. The machine shop is eerily quiet, and within a metre of the physics room, things appear to be levitating. At least one of the showers is running, but who knows which room the erstwhile scientist came from? Dare ye investigate?

Autobiography

The library carriage is normally a place of quiet, two storeys of shelves and comfy seating. The shelves are normally a little empty, filled only with what the Voidtreckers have bought themselves... but today, every shelf is filled.

Some books are normal - that one novel you'd been thinking of last week, or the tome of old family recipes you wistfully mentioned to your friend. The lower shelves are replete with activity books for small children, covering topics such as anatomy (for kids! non-human kids, mostly!), holiday activities for familiar and unfamiliar national holidays, and an unnerving number of sticker books that bodes ill for the walls of the train.

Others are larger, gilt or bound in strange covers. Like this one, coloured in a familiar hue, its spine reading only your name.

Fools' Gold

The Voidtrecker Express has landed on the world of Pamsar. More specifically, it has stopped, floating and untraceable, above the mountains holding the castle and surrounding town of the Pale Marquess's march.

It would have landed, but the forests and gardens of the march have petrified. Trees are sweeping spikes and clusters of sharp, smooth jade. Gemstone flowers dot the meadows and twine up walls and around window frames. Mosses have taken on the rough texture of granite. Beautiful as it is, it threatens the march's survival.

Team One

What were cultivated fields of grain are now rows upon rows of pure gold. Blinding, shimmering in the morning light coming over the mountains, but useless for the people of the Pale March. Panic is spreading. This team is tasked with protecting the granaries and food stores from panicked citizens.

Team Two

When pressed, many people appear to know the source of their misfortune. Living at the frontier, the people of their march have grown envious of the palaces and styles of the inner kingdom, and their prayers the last year have been for wealth and prosperity above all else. A wandering deity granted these wishes, to the peoples' regret. This team is to locate the deity's temple in the outlands, and convince them to reverse the blessing. Or else find another of the outsider gods to repair the damage.

Team Three

The forests across the march are now gorgeous, sharped prison bars for the people and creatures that live within them. This team must ingress into the jade woodlands, and rescue those trapped within. For some, a discovery is made: living blood shed on the petrified plants slowly dispels the effect.

Comments

[controlsthedie]

If only Idia knew how common it was for Thanatos's powers and skills to not be relevant on a mission, he'd probably be comforted. A little. Death Incarnate is still on his team, after all.

"... I'd rather not be here either," Thanatos admits as he vanishes his scythe again. He remains floating however, and the citizens look at Thanatos with a newfound fear. Some flee the line completely to go somewhere else. Blood and darkness.... At least that's the normal reaction to looking upon Death, he supposes.

"More help would make distributing the food faster."

[flameinthedarkness]

The floating Idia doesn't mind, in fact he's a little jealous at that floating while he has to walk. It could certainly lead to him later quizzing Thanatos over how he can do that, and if Idia could somehow turn it into a device for himself. Why walk when you can fly? Also it's not like he hasn't been around others who prefer to float, Malleus was notorious for floating rather than standing during their battle practices.

"Why not just bring in supplies until it's solved, it would help to relieve the panic if they had supplies to go through first." His mind switching over from his own social anxiety panic to problem solving. "Or have a team start to cultivate different crops. Though I suppose observation is required first to know if it's the plants themselves or the land that is being effected." All of this said barely above a mutter, Idia having a tendency to talk mostly to himself, but also quietly even if he was speaking to others.

[controlsthedie]

"That would assume that the train gives us enough supplies in the first place, and I know of only one person who could grow enough crops at once to feed a population." They are working with too few resources and are short on time, and having Persephone work her powers to the point of nearly collapsing can't be the solution every time.

"However, it would be prudent to discover the cause of all this and its range. The people of this world will need to survive on their own after we leave."

[flameinthedarkness]

Idia's lip curled up in annoyance at that, it really did seem like this 'train' had no clue about important items they required. Then again, 'important' items for Idia might not be the same as for others, his stuff technically wasn't needed for survival. Just his survival. With dealing with others. And keeping his sanity. He missed his computer. And his games. "My plant magic isn't growth based either..." That would be more along the alchemy classes, growing items for potions, but nothing to speed growth along like this location needed.

"Isn't that what the other teams are supposed to be doing?" Idia's not sure which was worse, being stuck here, or trampling through the wilderness for an answer. At least here he didn't have to go on a nature hike, although... "I wouldn't mind some of that gold..." Since it looks like he's going to have to be making his own electronics, and gold did play a part in their construction.

[controlsthedie]

Idia is another in a long line of people who wish to get a clearer answer from the train and the ability to properly outfit VoidTreckers for these missions. Time to prepare is short, and details aren't provided in the first place. The whole planning stage isn't properly carried out at all, making missions far more difficult than they need to be.

"Some are, though I haven't heard of any updates on our SCA yet." He looks at the device on his wrist. Nothing new has come over it. "I wouldn't collect the gold, either way. Greed is likely what caused this in the first place, and this place reminds me of King Midas."

[flameinthedarkness]

"I don't want it for wealth," Idia shot back, his tone still soft but with a hint of annoyance to it that he would care about such a monetary thing. "Gold's important for creating electronics, and the lab is still currently lacking items I need." However... that's a point, "Though... if it's a curse..." It wouldn't be good to bring aboard and risk their own food supply.

"Can't you do something with," Idia lifting a hand to wave it in Thanatos' direction. "That weapon of yours or something? If it is just at a plant level, wouldn't killing them all stop it?" He's Death, right? If these were still working like plants then he should be able to kill them and clear out the land to start again. And if not it would answer the question if it was the plants themselves affected, or the land.

[controlsthedie]

"... Is it? Hm." Thanatos has no idea what goes into electronics, to be fair. They are some kind of future mortal magic that Thanatos is still learning to use comfortably on the train. Mortals using gold for use in a tool that carries no ceremonial purpose or blatant show of wealth is something he hasn't seen much of in his world.

"Plants are not under my domain. That would be under Lady Demeter's influence." He could cut things with his scythe, but that is hardly anything special. It wouldn't solve anything either, just knock them down.