Test Drive 032

[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!

Culinary Containment

Every month, the train's stores are filled with crates of ingredients for use by its passengers. And every month, one ingredient is the focal point of all recipes. Potatoes, cinnamon, seaweed… but as the train pulls away from the station this month, there seems to have been a blip in the system when it comes to deciding on a biologically-appropriate foodstuff.

Spilling out from the storage carriage and into the kitchen are hundreds of live frogs. They're in the sinks, they're in the ovens, they're hopping alarmingly close to the transgates that link the area up to the sleepers...

Vote-Rigging

At the behest of its passengers, the train has instituted a voting system to allow for more carriage options and upgrades. Passengers are able to submit new ideas, or crowdfund those already suggested...

It's the night before platform, and all through the train, no one was stirring... Apart from your group, with your stockpile of a thousand points and the luminous voting panel you're all currently pouring them into. Bouncy castle carriage? Funded! Fishing carriage? Funded! Clocks? Eh... You have the points. Funded!

Then it's simply a matter of waiting for the morning, and seeing the chaos you've caused to the layout of the Voidtrecker Express. What new delights have you discovered?

Repo Train

The Void Ministry have another task for the Express: locating and repossessing the contents of a number of minor storage craft in an old mercantile zone. The coordinates are given, a small fleet of space-worthy craft and sufficient hazmat gear has been deposited at the meeting site for Voidtrecker use.

The main area is cushy enough, a round communal area surrounded by living pods renovated for basic Voidtrecker requirements. The hangar above allows for groups to head to the next assigned storage location, or to return with their piles of lawfully impounded gains.

Team One

High-risk storage locations are this team's priority. Potentially explosive material, artifacts or experiments without the requisite paperwork explaining how or why they were made, sometimes living creatures, the kind that shouldn't have been left in a large metal crate habitat for a decade. Opening these areas is a study in initiative and dealing with unpleasant surprises!

Team Two

This team are the back-up for the first group - once the artifacts, creatures or hazardous material has been made safe and brought back, they have to be recorded. Scanned. Studied, and compared to the extensive lists of potential contraband or lost goods. Sometimes, they're not quite as safe as you'd like.

Team Three

Some locations, rather than being used for the storage for which they were intended, have been repurposed by sapients who have developed within the system since the depot was created. Short, furred people with clever, webbed hands and high voices, they've turned crates and ships into cramped, partially-submerged warrens. This team is cleared to assess the damage done, and, if the current official owners of the stores will agree, process the change in ownership to the Su Samuru. Not all owners are happy with their squatters, however...

Comments

Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[persona_non_ratta]

Culinary Containment

With a bit of creative tucking and tying, Bruno had managed to turn his hoodie into a makeshift bag, and was currently snatching up frogs to pile into it. He was taking care not to hurt them as much as possible, but while the efforts to contain them seem to be going reasonably well, there's one big question on his mind as his hoodie-bag begins to fill up. "So... what exactly are we going to do with all these frogs once we catch them?", he asked. "I mean, it's not like there's a river or pond we can release them into on board."

Team Three

So... those sure were a whole race of non-human beings. However strange they appeared to him, though, they certainly seemed nice enough on the whole. And his familiarity with tight spaces certainly helped when navigating their cramped warrens.

While he could certainly understand the original owners of the ships and containers point, the fact was, that the strange little furry people had made this place their home. And he wasn't going to kick anyone out of their home if he could possibly help it. "Look, I know what the official owners are saying," he said. "But they've all been doing alright without these containers and things up until now. They're a lot more important to the Su Samuru than they could ever be to some shipping company."

Team 3

[electricyousei]

Ruri looked over at the older man and tilted her head, "Do you have a copy of the salvage agreement? Maybe we can find a loop hole in the salvage clause."

"I had a reputation at home for... Doing similar things and costing a few businesses some money, I don't see how this would be much different."

Re: Team 3

[persona_non_ratta]

"I think so?", Bruno said. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I remember that guy from the Ministry saying that it was sent to our S-C-As, but I don't have a clue how to get to it. Last time I tried to do anything with that little gadget I wound up almost blinding myself til I could find the button to turn off the light."

[electricyousei]

"Oh, I can show you how to use the SCA device if you like. I grew up with machines and have...."

She ponders for a minute how to say mental connection to them through highly illegal nanotechnology, "Knack for them."

[persona_non_ratta]

"I'd appreciate it," Bruno said. "We don't really have a lot of them where I'm from so all this is pretty new to me." Yes, he knew of a few things thanks to his powers, but nothing that was really helpful here.

Culinary Containment

[stabgremlin]

"Considering you're not dead from touching them, I'd say there's a good chance they're edible," Came the admittedly somewhat snarky toned reply from the latest witness to the frogmageddon currently sweeping through the kitchen. Whatever Aden had expected to see upon entering the kitchen on this particular day- and he'd come to expect a lot of different things, really- this wasn't one of them.

A blue hand shot out to catch a runaway amphibian making a dash to escape the kitchen, fingers curling around the small creature lightly so as to not harm it despite his remark that they might just end up being lunch.

"Oh look, we even have a few volunteers," He added, in much the same tone as he tilted his head toward the frogs that had decided that the ovens were a good and safe place to hang out for a time, "Not that I'm volunteering to try and cook them."

While he'd learned to be less than picky about what he turned into a meal, there was a few limits to how adventurous he felt like being. And so, he gestured vaguely toward the other man and his makeshift bag full of frogs with the hand currently holding the squirming almost-escapee, "May I?"

He was already gathering them up in there, after all. Better that than just putting the frog he'd snatched up back down to make more mischief.

Re: Culinary Containment

[persona_non_ratta]

"Eating frogs?", Bruno said. The idea obviously wasn't appealing to him. "I mean... I guess we could if they're not poisonous, but would anyone want to? I mean, I know there's plenty of other things here to eat that... aren't frogs." Live frogs at that, which would mean they'd need to be killed- likely en masse- before they could be eaten, and he found himself even less enthusiastic about that idea than about potentially eating them.

At the moment, there was still work to do though. "Huh? Oh, right, sure." He held out his bag full of squirming frogs to the blue-skinned, red-eyed man- amazing how quickly that sort of sight stopped being really strange- so that he could deposit the frogs he'd caught into it.

[stabgremlin]

"I'm sure there are those who would, should we lack any other source of protein. Maybe there are even a few obligate carnivores among the passengers. Who knows."

Aden would if he was starving too, he supposed. Desperate men didn't get to be picky. But as of right this moment, he was more irritated about the mess than concerned about whether or not he'd have to be a herbivore for the foreseeable future, depending on what the other available ingredients to cook with were like. And without desperation, he'd never even consider killing and cooking a frog.

"Thank you," He said as the other man held the makeshift bag out, popping the struggling frog down in there with the rest.

He moved over to the ovens, reaching in to pluck the frogs that had ended up in there out, moving to deposit them in the bag too.

"I think our primary concern right now though is catching them all before they can create more mischief. Once we're done with the critter roundup you can think about what to do with our little friends."

Normally he might have just turned and wandered right back out- leaving it to be someone else's mess to deal with. But this was the kitchen, and as far as Aden was concerned, the kitchen was a holy land where all his troubles seemed far away. He wondered how long it would take for him to clean everything once the froggy flurry had been dealt with.

"You seemed content to chase them down yourself, but I think this'll go faster if you have another pair of hands to help."

[persona_non_ratta]

"Yeah, I don't think we'll get that desperate though," he said. "From what I understand, the train is pretty good about keeping everybody fed. At least when it come to having things to cook with." The skill of those doing the cooking tended to vary though.

And Bruno... would probably take up temporary vegetarianism before killing and cooking a frog himself. A lot of the food he was used to was technically vegetarian anyway, thanks to the living situation in the Encanto, so it wouldn't be as much of a sacrifice to him as it might be to some.

"Sure, the more people helping, the sooner it'll be done. We'll probably need another bag eventually though; there's a lot of these little guys."

[stabgremlin]

"Seems like it," Aden commented, somewhat thoughtfully. They'd been fine so far, of course. And the people who'd been around way longer than he had seemed to have been fine too, all things considered. He'd just been cursed with distrustfulness, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Despite his own inclination to be negative though, he only gave that single affirmation, instead of voicing any worry.

"Were you going to try and tidy it all up yourself if someone else didn't come along?" The Chiss asked, snatching another frog up mid-leap, and moving to deposit it into the other man's makeshift bag.

"I think a large pot should work too. At least for the short-term."

Just leaving them in there would, for a lack of a different term, be inhumane, but until they could get the kitchen back under control and figure out what to do with their froggy friends in the long-term, it would probably work.

[persona_non_ratta]

"Well... I guess, yeah," Bruno said, shrugging slightly. "I'm still pretty new around here, so I figured I'd try and take care of it. Let people who have routines and things keep them up as much as they could, you know?" Plus it was easier than trying to socialize with a train full of still mostly strangers. Not that he disliked them, it was just... a lot.

He nodded at the idea for the pot as a potential container. "There's a bunch of suitcases and things in the last car too that might work. But getting any of the bigger ones up here would be a whole other job of its own."

Re: Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[animal_magicisim]

"Make friends with them?" Antonio asked cheerfully, helping to convince the frogs to stay calm in his Tio's hood. "Maybe they'll be like your rats and then you'll have all sortsa new friends!"

Re: Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[persona_non_ratta]

Antonio was a big help in this sort of situation, and would be even more of one once they got all the frogs contained. The problem at the moment was getting to that point. Bruno chuckled slightly. "Yeah, well I don't know about that," he said. "They'd probably be better off if we stopped somewhere with a nice stream or pond for them to live in; I don't think they'd be happy living on a train. At least not this many of them."

Re: Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[animal_magicisim]

"We can make them a pond or something though! We can just ask Louisa to dig out a open space in the greenhouse and Isabella can plant Lilly pads for them once Momma fills it up with water, and the Casita can..."

Oh. Right.

His shoulders slumped a little. "They'll all show up here soon, right, Tio Bruno?"

Re: Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[persona_non_ratta]

"I don't know," Bruno admitted. "I mean, no one else really has much of their family on board. At least not the one they were born into; I know there's some people who met here on the train and became family, but..." He sighed. "It might be just you and me for awhile, Tonito."

And changing the subject slightly, because that's not one he particularly wants to think about himself. "Besides, we couldn't just go digging up the greenhouse however we felt like it. There's a lot of people on the train, and if we were gonna make something that's big enough for all these little guys, we'd have to make sure they said it was OK first."

Re: Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[animal_magicisim]

"Why wouldn't they say it's okay? We're helping everyone by helping the frogs, right? I mean, Abeula says we must always use our powers to help the people, so we're just helping!"

Re: Bruno Madrigal | Encanto

[persona_non_ratta]

"Well, yeah, but there's only so much space in the greenhouse, and a lot of it is already being used for other things. Plus, what if other people wanted to use the space that the frogs would need for things like growing extra food? Helping the frogs would help other people on the train, sure, but there's other things that might help them more. We'd have to actually find out what everyone wanted, not just guess, you know?"

Sorry about that, I'm back!! Culinary Containment

[dyingpro]

Zagreus has been doing much the same as Bruno, only he's been using an empty burlap sack that had once contained rice to collect the little things. He's never seen one of these 'frogs' in person, so he doesn't know much about them other than three things: they are slippery, very wiggly, and very loud.

"I'm not sure, to be honest," he answers after wrangling one more into the sack and tying it closed. He carefully makes his way towards his fellow frog wrangler, trying not to step on any of the creatures with his fiery feet. "I think we could put some of them in the rock garden car, but not all of them. Maybe we could release some of them on a platform? What do these need to survive?"

Seriously, Zagreus doesn't know the first thing about frogs.

No problem. XD

[persona_non_ratta]

Until recently, Bruno would have found the sight of someone with fiery feet very alarming and probably cause to scramble for the nearest bucket of water. But as it was apparently normal for this young man- or at least didn't seem to be hurting him- he was getting used to it. Mostly.

"They mostly need a body of water to live and lay eggs in and plenty of bugs to eat," he said. "Some plants are probably good too, so the bugs have something to eat and the frogs have something to hide in."

[dyingpro]

"Well we don't really have anything like that on the Train," Zagreus answers, brow furrowed deep in thought. "Maybe we could set them free on a planet nearby? Assuming of course it can handle a sudden influx of frogs, and it's not going to damage all the plants and bugs, or anything." He's heard horror stories of invasive species, and he'd rather not destroy life if he can help it. "Or maybe we could ask the Train if they could grant us some sort of animal raising car? But we wouldn't be able to fit all of them, I don't think."

The frogs wriggle and writhe in the sack; Zagreus carefully offers to take Bruno's impromptu basket of frogs as well, to ease the burden. "Well at the very least we need them out of the kitchen car. People need to cook in here, and they can't do that if there are little animals crawling all around."

Wildcard

[oracle_for_hire]

The private car doors were usually closed when someone was in them, but this time was an exception. Because there was a curled up orange cat being a cat. Which meant he was sleeping in the door way, making it impossible to close the door; which left the man inside visible. Completely.

He was younger than Bruno, and at a first glance looked normal enough. Small glasses perched on his nose, messy brown hair, purple striped scarf over a green sweater that looked very old and worn, but comfortable for it. He was in the train provided pants which didn't quite hide one of the differences obvious on a closer look only... he had a prosthetic leg.

But then that might not be the thing Bruno notices on a closer look. Because the man is.. yes he is biting a crystal ball. He shoved it onto a stand that was set before him with a bit of a huff. "I refuse," he told it flatly. "I am not making my living telling fortunes for an ungrateful captive audience again. I'll find another way to help on missions, or I'll go back to teaching. But I am done with small minded idiots complaining to me when I see a future they don't like," he growled.

Spark opened an eye inward, lazily. "If someone beats you up for it again, at least I know where there are healers." The eye closed again. "Keep it down, will ya? I'm trying to nap."

Re: Wildcard

[persona_non_ratta]

Bruno had really just been passing through the car, honestly. He spent a lot of his free time- of which he had plenty, as his portion of chores didn't take very long- passing through, wandering from one car to another. Most places were so crowded, and while that wasn't especially unusual for him, he was used to being crowded among family, or at least people he'd known to various degrees all his life. Most people on the train were still strangers. It make him feel a bit uneasy even if most of them had been nothing but kind to him, and made it difficult to really settle anywhere for long.

But he did stop when he saw the man. His eye had first been drawn by his green sweater the man wore- it reminded him oddly of his own ruana, which he was glad had come along with him- but then fell on the prosthetic leg. And there they stayed for a long moment; he knew what it was, but with his sister's healing powers, no one in the town had ever needed such a thing so it really jumped out at him. He shifted his gaze when he realized he was staring, not wanting to seem rude if the man noticed.

Though it was then that he noticed something else that made him stare. The man was talking to- and biting at- a crystal ball. His first thought was a wry, 'Well at least I never got desperate enough to talk to rocks,' but he kept that to himself. He did have some tact, after all.

But once what the man was saying registered, that thought quickly vanished. Was this man...? Could he...? No, first things first. "Uh, you know," Bruno said awkwardly by way of making his presence known, "you probably shouldn't try to chew on things like that; you'll hurt your teeth."

And he was just... gonna ignore the talking cat for now. One thing at a time.

Re: Wildcard

[oracle_for_hire]

"Ah, it's fine," Dominic said. He reached into his mouth and pulled out a bunch of well designed prosthetic teeth. "They've been through worse," he added with a bit of a gap toothed grin, before putting them back in. "Bruno, right?" he asked, waving a hand to the seat across from him in invitation.

Re: Wildcard

[persona_non_ratta]

Oh... It looked like his warning was a bit too late. And there was another thing Julieta's healing powers had spared everyone back home; the only ones who ever lost teeth in the Encanto were young children who were meant to.

The man knowing his name got a surprised blink though, as he took the offered seat opposite him. "Yeah," he said. "How did you know? I mean, I'm used to people back home knowing who I am, even when they didn't want to talk about me, but I haven't exactly... talked to that many people on the train."

Re: Wildcard

[oracle_for_hire]

He gestured at the crystal ball. "I'd crack a joke that it's because everyone's talking about you, but I suspect the truth would go over better. You're not the only seer on this train, Bruno Madrigal."

Spark huffed and got up, stretching. "If you two are gonna talk shop I'm gonna go find Leia and bug her for fish." He trotted off, letting the door slide closed.

Dominic leaned back and smiled slightly, reaching into a pocket. He came up with a small brown bag. "Mavple candy?"