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

Genjo Sanzo | Saiyuki (Possible CRAU from El Nysa? We'll see)

[smithandwesson]

I. [Culinary Containment]

Genjo Sanzo did not understand what the big deal was. So there were a bunch of frogs running loose. So they were supposed to be this month's shipment supply of food. Was a frog edible? What was so wrong with frogs? Catch enough of them, and that's more than enough protein to sustain a person.

He made his way to the kitchen carts, splattered in a small amount of what could only be described frog gunk, only to slap the handful of four or five dead frogs that he had already hunted down into the counter—looking dead-eyed at the current person working at the stoves.

"Get cooking."

II. [It Isn't Vote Rigging If It's Something Necessary. And Who Wouldn't Want One Of These?]

Seriously. It was stunning that the train didn't have one of these already. The Express had a training gym and an armory, didn't they? So how could they not possibly have a shooting range???

So yeah. Enjoy your new state-of-the-art, still clock-free shooting range, guys, for all your target practice needs. Sanzo is already in there, pistol in hand as he practices his rounds. Ridiculously well-aimed shots that they were.

He had been in here since he brought the cart into existence the night before.

Who needs sleep when you can practice how to shoot?

III. [And Somehow He Got Team Three- Figures]

Not that he minded that much or anything. As willing as he was to land himself into an opportunity for some good old-fashioned violence- He was just as happy to not over-exert himself. Deligation required less running around. It gave him more time to rest. The only real issue was how stubborn the original handlers were.

It was apparent the little furry bastards had made a community and home for themselves, so what was the big deal?

He let out a sigh, turning to his team with the tired expression and natural leadership skills of someone who had to do this sort of thing one too many times over already.

"Alright, you bastards. It seems the original ministry will be giving us a hard time over letting this go, so we're here to look things over and then tell them otherwise. You all ready to assess what's going on in these shipment crates for yourselves?"

IV. [WILDCARD]

((Wish to play something different that isn't listed? Feel free to drop a starter of your choosing here! Or if you wish to plot things out, feel free to send me a PM or contact me at either chohakkaifan -or- discord used chohakkaifan#5971!))

III now with embarassing dad

[its_dad_sanzo]

And here's Koumyou Sanzo, raising a hand like he's in a class and not talking to his very grumpy, grown-up son.

"...I... may not have actually understood the mission..."

He lowers his hand to scratch idly at his jaw, and then points over at one of the small, fuzzy locals scurrying around in the background.

"Aren't these little guys the new owners? The... Su-somethings?"

>:O!!!

[smithandwesson]

When Sanzo first decided to participate in this mission, he had some questions. Mainly regarding the blond-haired figment of Sanzo's imagination which seemed to be just sitting and smiling there on the dropship with the rest of his assigned group. But, whatever, hallucinations of his trauma made just as much sense as everything else that had been happening to him since he showed up here.

It was fine.

He was fine.

Everything is okay.

It's probably best not to acknowledge it.

Which-- Was pretty hard to do when the figment suddenly started talking to him.

It made it near impossible for him not to stare at it for a good solid second. His eyebrows scrunched, glaring daggers, before deciding to turn towards the exit of the dropship. Growling out his orders in a way that didn't at all sound stressed.

"... Lets' head the fuck out and get this over with!"

Yep. There Sanzo goes. He's leaving the dropship to enter the shipment container colony. His crazy thoughts can't catch him there.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Kouryuu-chaaan," Koumyou whines, trotting along after him, "you can't avoid talking to me for forever, you know!"

[smithandwesson]

He could feel his teeth clench against the cigarette with the sound of that oh-so-familiar voice, like a faint echo from a past life. Damn, he was probably ruining the filter at this point. He was probably going to have to pull out another one once he stopped for a sec.

His shoulders tensed as he felt his pace quicker in hopes of escaping facing that familiar face again.

Nope. No. Never. You can't make him. In fact, now he's just outright running down the corridor.

Wow.

[its_dad_sanzo]

That's okay, Kouryuu-chan. You never had adult legs to run around with Koumyou with, so you probably don't know that the old man is wicked fast. On paper, sure; he'd protected two sutras, for crying out loud.

But in practice?

Koumyou just keeps pace, no problem.

"You smoke a lot more than I do, you know. Bet I could do this for longer!"

Culinary Containment

[tactlesstantei]

...What?

[Unfortunately, Masumi has no idea how to cook a frog. It's not her fault; she's never had to learn how to prepare frogs as food before, but it's becoming clear that she's going to have to learn fast if this is the ingredient of the month.]

I hope we got recipes for how to use these, otherwise there's going to be a lot of improvising.

[smithandwesson]

What's so hard about it? You gut it, throw it over a flame, make sure the meat looks cooked, add some spice if we have any, and then eat it.

[This guy wasn't a picky eater.]

As long as we have food, I don't see the big deal. Supposedly the legs are a delicacy.

[tactlesstantei]

Well, I've never had to gut things for starters. I'm sure I can do the rest of that, it's just preparing them for cooking.

[She really has no idea how to gut and prep these things, which is a problem when it comes to being able to cook the frogs. She's not squeamish, it's just that she's never had to learn how to gut a frog before.]

You just remove the organs, right? [It at least sounds like Genjo knows how!]

[smithandwesson]

"Mn," Damn. This girl didn't even know how to gut something properly? What was she doing in front of a stove?

Whatever. Sanzo has to show how it's done himself.

Walking his way around the counter, he stepped up beside her, his eyes focused on the frog. "Cut open the head first. It would be best if you bled it out. Then we'll get chop it off and make the incision to remove everything inside."

Survival skills with Sanzo. Have fun, Sera.

[tactlesstantei]

Alright, like this? [Masumi follows the instructions, doing her best to bleed it out over the sink before removing the head and making the cut to remove the insides. She's not quick, but that's due to inexperience.]

I never got to learn much about cooking back home, since I was living in hotels and hotel rooms don't usually come with kitchen space. Most of what I know was learned here. [Nothing like having to help in the kitchen as a team chore to help her learn!]

I.

[tailwhipping]

'Working the stoves' is a generous way to describe what this person is doing in the kitchen, honestly. She(?) looks dead-eyed right back at Sanzo, maintaining the gaze even as the whip-thin ended of her long green tail rises up and curls around one of the frogs.

"Why?" she asks, before lifting her head and dropping the frog into her mouth and swallowing it whole.

[smithandwesson]

"... Because not everyone can eat it raw like that," His expression read something along the lines of 'Why would you even ask that? Wouldn't it be obvious?' But instead choosing to take the slightly less pedantic route as he sighed out and shook his head. "If you're not here to cook, why are you even in the kitchen? Move if you're not going to make yourself useful."

Oh, look, he's even making his way around the counter to get things going himself.

[tailwhipping]

"True. Lots of you unfortunate soft ones here," the lizard remarks, absolutely deadpan. Her jaw parts slightly, tongue lolling out and back in with a deliberate motion. "But I'm used to that."

She backs off from the stove as he joins her on this side, gathering up all the dead frogs with a sweep of her tail and transferring them to the nearest worktop. She-- okay, she downs one more of them raw and whole, but even as she does that she's pulling a knife out of a sheathe on her leather belt.

Using both the knife and her claws, she starts cleaning the frogs to be cooked.

[smithandwesson]

You know what?

At least she agreed to start working. So the lizard had a habit of eating the rations before they were fully prepared for everyone. Whatever, Sanzo can get more. At least, unlike most, they seemed to have a mutual understanding of what needed to be done.

And so he observed, watching as she deliberately began to cut and clean through the carcasses with almost admirable precision.

"Not bad for someone who came to the kitchens to just mooch food from others."

[tailwhipping]

"I feed my pack, when we travel," she says, pushing the first couple of cleaned carcasses in his direction. "No kitchens on the road, no taverns in the wilds. Only forage and prey--"

Her head whips to the side. A twitch of her tail at the base amplifies to a whip-crack by the time it reaches the finger-width tip, and she snaps a jumping frog straight out of the air. About eight feet away.

It's a long tail.

"I don't mooch," she tells him, hands going back to work while her tail deposits this newest carcass alongside the others. "My guts are just stronger than yours."

II.

[ero_kappa]

Gojyo stands outside the new car, surveying the inside with a distinctly unimpressed expression on his face.

"This is what beat the strip club? A shooting range? Who in their right mind would vote for a-"

That's when he spots the back of a very familiar blonde head, its owner busy pumping a paper target full of lead like he does it for a living. ...Which he kind of does.

"Of course." The red-head murmurs, making his way over to the booth with feigned nonchalance. Sanzo isn't bothering with the customary earmuffs and neither does Gojyo, already more than used to the crack of a Smith and Wesson going off way too close for comfort. They're probably all a little deaf from it by now, to be honest.

"Alright, tell me how the hell you managed to rig the vote for this crappy thing instead of what everyone else wanted," he says in a quiet moment between shots, standing behind the monk with his hands in his pockets.

Ahhh! Yes!

[smithandwesson]

"Easy to get what you want when lazy fucks like you are participating in the vote," Ah. It's Gojyo. Of course, it would be him of all people to end up here. Resilient cockroach that he was.

"Everyone was asleep during voting time. Not my fault."

Besides, they needed a shooting range.

And to solidify his point, he managed to empty a few more extra rounds towards his target.

:D

[ero_kappa]

"Lazy?! That's low takin' advantage of the fact normal ass people need to sleep!" Gojyo protests, instantly annoyed when Sanzo ignores him to continue shooting.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with a shooting range, huh?"

[smithandwesson]

"Shoot," Duh.

With that, he finished piling his final few rounds into the target before lifting his gun. He had been going for quite a bit at this point, and he knew he needed to save ammo. Shit didn't grow on trees in this place after all. He was breaking away from the target before turning to look the redhead over.

How was it that this asshole always knew precisely when the perfect time to bother him was?

"Ain't like your shakujo doesn't have ranged capabilities last I recall," He lifted his gun, pointing it square at the kappa. "Or would you prefer to play the part of the target?"

I. b/c am a horrible human being.

[to_rise_above]

The corner of Jin Ling's mouth twitched ever so slightly at the rude slap of dead frogs on the counter. Was this guy blind? Did he look like he was cooking today?! What part of his expressions showed competence in knowing how to flay-- frogs?

In fact, he probably never ate them as a delicacy. Why was a complete stranger doing this right now? He honestly wondered what he did wrong to catch this person's attention. At the same time, he basically just walked into this mess without any context.

"What are you talking about?"

Ahhh Jin Ling I'm so sorry

[smithandwesson]

"I caught them because this is what we got. But like hell I'm doing all the work on this damn train. If everyone wants to eat, we all have to put the work into it," He paused, looking down at the kid with a sullen yet oddly judgemental expression. "Or would you prefer to switch places and be the one to grab and kill all the frogs for us?"

you are not sorry at all. not one ounce of sorry here.

[to_rise_above]

"I know that part!"

It is not the question he was asking here! He just dumped a bunch of dead frogs in front of Jin Ling, expecting him to know how to prepare it? That's probably not a good idea either way. Even Jin Ling knew better than to attempt cooking it.

"That's fine with me. Just don't expect me to cook any of this."

He replied seriously. Obviously, that was a better for the boy. He was pretty much prepared to hunt as many as he could. Even if they end up with more than they could flay. At least his archery skills would come in handy, plus the demonic powers of the wolf demon.

[smithandwesson]

"... Then what the hell are you doing rubbernecking in the kitchen cart?" Oh boy. He could feel the reflexive twitch of his eyebrow with that one. Singing out with aggravation, he realized that he made a mistake asking(?) this person for help. Grumbling, he instead looked through the shelves himself to find a knife. No one here was going to do it.

I got really sidetracked on the weekend sorry for the late reply

[to_rise_above]

"I just happened to pass by! I'm going to help aren't I? Do you always talk to people like this?!"

As if Jin Ling had anything to say on the matter, given his attitude of conversation with most people. He was just getting annoyed that this guy he didn't know anything about was bossing him around like he owed him something.

Jin Ling huffed as he was looking around for any of those creatures to slay, he supposed.