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

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!]

[smithandwesson]

"Sounds to me like you stayed at some pretty shitty hotels," Not that he didn't understand the experience. He had been to his fair share of them himself and understood the concept of living off restaurant food more than most. But he also knew what it was like to live quite the opposite as well.

He lived a lifestyle of extreme dichotomy.

"But that's right. Just crack the head and skull enough and hold it over the sink. It's where you'll get the best drainage. Once it stops making a mess, bring it over to the cutting board, and we'll get rid of the head completely."

Still, her cutting was surprisingly good for someone who was only doing this for the first time now.

She had potential.

[tactlesstantei]

They weren't terrible. [Does she wish she could have not had to move from hotel to hotel? Yeah. But they weren't horrible places to stay at least, so there was that much.

In the meantime though, she's just going to focus on the frog and getting it prepped, following his instructions on what to do.]

...Alright, now what?

[smithandwesson]

Now we gut it.

[He seemed to watch with silent approval silent. He hadn't seen many people who were so willing to get their hands messy with such things, especially when they had no prior experience with it. Her lack of squeamishness was even able to pique the curiosity of someone as usually reserved as himself.]

Cut down along the chest while cracking the rib-line, and the organs should easily expose themselves. After that scooping them out is relatively easy.

[Who'd have through this Buddhist monk's life would have to lead up to this? Cooking lessons with teenagers?]

Are you sure you haven't done this before?

[tactlesstantei]

[It's at this point that she does look a bit uncomfortable, but that doesn't stop her from pushing through to get the guts out of the frog.]

I'm sure. It's just that I helped solve murders before I was brought to the train, so this isn't the worst thing I've seen.

[A pause.]

Then again, I've never had to physically gut something before, so this is a new one.

[smithandwesson]

I see. So that's the reason.

[Well, that certainly explained her resolve. Dealing with animals for food would be easy compared to witnessing death regularly.

He could respect that.]

Roughing it on occasion will get you used to it quickly. Most people start with fish, though.

[Walking over to the sink, he motioned her over.]

You're through the tricky part. Now you wash it and make an incision along the skin to remove it. After that, we can start cutting the meat. It's pretty much like cooking anything else after that point.