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

[devilofaboy]

[He nodded while he listened, attention divided between the sheepdog and Kavinsky to make sure the former didn't make a break for it. He could manage shears just fine, that wouldn't be the hard part. The hard part would be...what, smuggling the dog on board in someone's hoodie?]

I can handle dreaming shears.

[He had a sleep mask with him, though it felt like some kind of betrayal to use it instead of the green pills he'd used before that. It hadn't felt like betrayal before he'd been standing here with Kavinsky, but-

There was a lot that could go wrong with this idea, but odds like that had never stopped him before. He glanced around, making sure there was no one around out of habit, before reaching into his pocket for the mask.

Maybe he could dream something to throw over the animal too when they were smuggling it in, something to make it not-really-invisible-but-kind-of.]

You'll keep watch?

[He didn't say it in so many words, but he was trusting Kavinsky with this. He could count on one hand the number of people he trusted with dreamer things like this, and K was now one of them.]

[dreamforger]

Let's do this, then.

[Kavinsky raised a slight eyebrow at Ronan's confidence that he could handle dreaming the shears, but he didn't question it. He certainly seemed more confident in his dreaming than the boy Kavinsky had last seen, but in his opinion this wasn't a bad thing. Just a little bit- different.

Sure, there was a lot that could go wrong, but Kavinsky couldn't imagine that they'd get in trouble for it ... Or at least not much. The Void Ministry seemed strangely tolerant of fuck ups, or else Kavinsky wouldn't be here in the first place. Or that was how he looked at it, anyway.

At the question he smiles, not harsh- just honest- looking at Ronan intently, and maybe a little too long as he takes a step back.]

Course I'll watch. I'd say get comfortable, but this isn't exactly the backseat of the Mistu, is it?

[There's something vaguely suggestive in how he says that. Not overt, but a slight way that his New Jersey accent lingers on the words. He doesn't really know about Ronan and the mask yet, so he slips one of those green pills from somewhere, holding it temptingly between two slender fingers that bob in the air.]

[devilofaboy]

[No matter how confident he came across as, he knew he was still a shit show. Especially away from ley lines. There was just as good a chance that he would fuck this up as there was that he'd get it right.

There was something about Kavinsky saying he'd watch that- Ronan had literally asked him and yet- he didn't pursue that thought. Instead, he pulled the sleep mask out at the same time he saw the green pill.]

Oh.

[Of course, he should have expected Kavinsky to be prepared. This still felt like betrayal, somehow. Even if he remembered Bryde telling him he shouldn't eat dreams. He'd taken Kavinsky's pills for so long after he'd been gone, like he was clinging to his memory.

He stared for a moment too long, not at the pill, exactly, but Kavinsky's hand, the lines of his fingers, the shape of his knuckles. Then he averted his gaze, looking down at the mask.]

I've got this.

[He sat on the floor, leaning against the side of the opened crate. The sheepdog took it as an invitation and immediately climbed into his lap. He petted it for a moment before looking up.]

There's- [a lot we need to talk about.] Fuck. I'll see you in a minute.

[He slipped on the mask. Within moments, he was asleep. The sheepdog settled happily on his lap, even though it wasn't being petted anymore. The minutes crawled by and then all at once, Ronan was awake again. At one side of him were shears but at his other side was a scattering of book pages with a single word repeated on every page, front and back--tamquam.]

[dreamforger]

[Kavinsky knows it isn't a betrayal, even if there's a moment where acid eats between his ribs. But there's something in the way that Ronan's looking at his fingers, and the warmth of it manages to quiet the sensation, even if his mouth feels dry, and there's a disappointment there. But really it's just-- strange. So there's an odd moment where his hand hovers on the air a breath longer than it should. And maybe there's a bit more flourish than needed as he shrugs and slips the pill from his fingers, tucking it away for later.

He is curious about the sleep mask, though. Something in how his eyes linger on it, sharp- like he's still trying to put the puzzle of it all together, even when Ronan holds most of the pieces. Asking isn't his style, so he doesn't. Instead he makes a grand gesture with his other hand, a smile teasing at one edge of his mouth.]

Be my guest.

[He settles down near Ronan, close but not touching, alert but easy as he watches him. It's easier to scrutinize the other boy once he's sleeping, mask over his eyes. Same idea as his pills, he supposed- probably a gentler drop into dreaming; he couldn't blame the other boy for that. But when had Kavinsky ever done anything the easy way?

There's something in Ronan's face that he can't quite put his finger on. Like in sleep he looks less worn, more like the boy from the dream field and his substance parties, and K can only see the difference because of the absence. Because he's alert and looking for it, now. Not just basking in the feeling of having him here with him. He reaches out and pets the dog-sheep-thing a few times. Yeah, okay, the fucking thing was pretty cute, he guessed.

And then there was the shears, and the pages, and Kavinsky has one of the pages in his fingers as Ronan jerks awake.]

Ex vita ita discedo tamquam ex hospitio, non tamquam e domo.

[He wasn't as good with Latin as Adam and Latin, but he wasn't bad at it, either, even if his pronunciation is maybe a bit off. But he'd had a B+ in the class, until their teacher had been wanted in connection with murder and vanished under mysterious circumstances.

It's the wrong Cicero quote, though: I depart this life as if from an inn, not as if from a home. But it's one that Kavinsky remembered.]

[devilofaboy]

[Ronan was embarrassed when he removed the sleep mask and saw the pages he'd brought with him. Those weren't supposed to leave the dream, and yet just like he'd done countless times before, he brought everything within reach with him. He hoped Kavinsky wouldn't notice the way his face was a little red, or the hard line of his mouth.

If the sheepdog hadn't been sitting on his lap still he would've flung himself to his feet, maybe punched something. Instead, he took a deep breath, looking over at Kavinsky and then the page he was holding. He wasn't going to tell the other boy what tamquam was really part of in this context. Not yet, at least. He frowned at the other pages scattered next to him like they'd personally ruined his life before picking them up one by one, aggressively crumpling them into balls, and throwing them as hard as he could.

Unfortunately, the sheepdog thought he was playing and lifted its head before dashing off after one of the paper balls. When he was sure the animal was actually coming back, Ronan picked up the shears he'd dreamed, turning them over in his hands. They looked alright, and they'd worked in the dream, so. He had confidence in them.

Glancing over at Kavinsky again, he muttered;]

Errare Humanum est.

[To err is human. He knew he'd fucked up a little, but he still had his prize.

The sheepdog came back over, dropping the crumpled paper next to Ronan, looking at him expectantly.]

No, we're not playing. [He told it.] Hold onto it.

[The last part was to Kavinsky, though he didn't actually look at him when he said it.]