Test Drive 033

[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!

Colour Wheels

The passengers of the Voidtrecker Express have been requesting an art carriage for over a year, and now that one has been provided, it's overflowing with supplies. Not just the paints, minerals, fabric and other materials that came with the carriage itself, but the cases and bags full of arts and crafts materials from a variety of passenger worlds.



Some are mundane - oil pastels, bright skeins of cotton thread, primed canvases and blocks of white clay. Others are enchanted - sparkling squares of soft fabric, wooden beads that hum a note when strung with others. Talismans that animate the mannequins– hm, those shouldn't be here. In any case, there's more than enough here to be getting on with!

Second-Hand Embarrassment

Valentine's Day isn't generally celebrated among Void-capable peoples. The literature is divided as to why this might be, but when the Voidtreckers awaken one day to find the entire train bedecked in pinks and reds, paper hearts littering the aisles, they might be closer to working it out. Someone must have suggested it to the train.



Not only has the train embraced the concept, but throughout the day, the ICPs ring out with announcements - valentines messages between Voidtreckers. Did either Voidtrecker ask for this announcement? Unknown. "Attention, passengers. It has come to my attention that [name] has strong feelings for [name]."

Minor Inconvenience

The Voidtreckers have been landed on Fero Minor, a small, out-of-the-way world, with the sole brief of ensuring that the Fero High School festival is a resounding success. The brief is also entirely up-front about why this is so important - Fero Minor exists as a prison for a being so powerful that their wishes become reality and their dislikes are immediately unmade. Or, rather, an infant form of one. While not quite that powerful yet, the being has developed a fixation on a cultural school festival, and if it doesn't go as they hope, the world will collapse in on itself and all life will end.


The instability of the Fero entity has led many of the hired citizens of the world to leave before their contracts are up, and the festival is chronically short-staffed.

Team One

This team is responsible for manning the haunted house. Or, in fact, the actual pit of ghouls and ghasts that a section of the compound has become under the force of the entity's enthusiasm. The monsters must be kept within their area, kept under control… or perhaps slain, and the Voidtreckers replace them as the terrifying haunts of this attraction.

Team Two

For a festival running out of staff, there sure are a lot of food stalls, and just as many game kiosks. Team two must man both of these - there are ingredients and materials aplenty, at least. Pick something you can cook, or set up a trial or minigame. Or, instead, mill around and try out other stalls. The festival would look weird without customers, after all!

Team Three

Of course, the triumphant finale of any festival - the entity has decided - is the performance. Team three must plan, rehearse and put on a show to be remembered, whether that be a play, a gig, a talent show, or something entirely different. Stage fright need not apply - if this show is a bust, it's bye-bye Fero Minor.

Comments

Hunk | Voltron

[ironchef]

Second-Hand Embarrassment

"Wow, I guess the train's making up for having every other god except for cupid on it," Hunk's joking to the person next to him before the train makes another announcement. "How did the train figure out Earth months in comparison to... weird word months? What planet is it from again? Or is it just a number like some of the others."

Depending on who it is being ratted out this time, either Hunk gives them a friendly, "I guess the train's trying to set you up, huh? If you need any help with a romantic dinner, let me know. I have a great recipe for this month's ingredient." Or, heaven-forbid if it's him that the train calls out? "It's just as friends! I promise. The people here are so cool, honestly. How can I not like you?"

Minor Inconvenience - Team One or Two

Okay, so, reality benders? Kind of a scary situation. He doesn't want to provoke that. Nope. But he does absolutely want to cook.

He's got little plates of hors d'oeuvres set out, homemade cakes, yogurt and chocolate dipped fruits, all kinds of great things. He's really throwing his all into it (but he always does when he cooks). "Are all missions like this? If so, count me in. This is a piece of cake... Literally, I'm also making cake. Can you get it out of the oven for me before it burns? Mitts are over there."

He'll take care of it if the other person doesn't, but Hunk's already doing a balancing act worthy of a tightrope walker trying to move around three trays at once. If he rushes, he risks a culinary disaster and then his very soul will hurt. Imagine a pile of lost food. Imagine that. It's terrible, and no one should be subjected to that nightmare. Let alone a teenage elder god brain or whatever's happening with this thing.

---

At one point disaster does strike, and a loose monster from the haunted house rampages right towards his stall. His stall, complete with everything he just made, especially those perfectly melted tiny smores. Cue a teenager in an apron holding a laser-powered minigun ready to shoot if he has to.

"How did that get by everyone at the haunted house?! That feels like someone's trying to sabotage the festival."

Disaster

[elevatoravatar]

"We were busy removing anything of worth from those minions of darkness that we felled in case there was a subjugation quest."

With that Elizabeth follows in an unhurried manner, yawning slightly as a horrible black monster materializes behind her.

"For the price of those tiny marshmallow and chocolate things, I shall dispose of the monster if you are not strong enough to handle the task."

[ironchef]

He takes a couple of shots, the weapon jerking with the force of them, and they hit but the creature just ends up with a couple of holes and stringing some kind of putrid blood that he'd rather not have near him. No. And he could just keep filling it with holes that it may or may not care about? But this girl looks plenty badass enough.

"Yes! Yes please. I'll even make you some custom ones, with thinly sliced fruit or whatever else you want. Side of hot chocolate with whipped cream? It's yours."

Hunk can absolutely fight, but he very much enjoys being a normal person not covered in the remains of a disgusting foe and also he doesn't want to do all this work all over again. Repeating a process over can sometimes make it better but in cooking it just usually means you run out of ingredients.

[elevatoravatar]

"Excellent...."

Elizabeth smiles with that smile that.... An end boss gets right before they get to toy with the hero in their first meeting as the black figure behind her charges the ghoul and starts.... Eating it. With all the entheusiasm of a 6 year old at a candy store.

"I have only been to a few restaraunts, but they do fascinate me."

[ironchef]

Oh that's not what he expected. Not the smile so much- he's seen enough Galra to not be surprised by excitable warrior sorts anymore. No. It's that the uh... the whatever following her? Yeah, it just ate the ghoul.

He's going to be sick. Maybe. Nope, nope. Concentrate. Keep it down.

He turns his back on it, large gun returning to the shape of a device no larger than a frisbee that he hooks to his belt, blinking hard as he thinks of how to do words again. "Y-yeah. No restaurants- wait. No restaurants? Really? That's a shame."

He's just going to have to get used to the really wierd things people do to fight here. But alright! He owes her some smores and some hot chocolate. And he moves back to his cooking area to take care of that, still finding his footing out of that startled moment. "I've been trying a lot of alien dishes since I was away from Earth. I'd like to think it really expanded my palate."

[elevatoravatar]

Elizabeth's persona slurps down the last of the ghoul foot like a piece of pasta then lets out a roar that echos less in real space, but more in the heads of those around it before vanishing as she sits down at the stall.

"I have never encountered an alien. Demons, shadows, and mortals yes. But they all fell under the domain of the human's sea of the soul."

Leaning on her arm she taps her cheek slightly and ponders, "The collective unconscious of mankind is... Not a good place for restaurants, for what is relatively safe in the physical world, frequently suffers many complications in the metaphysical."

[ironchef]

"Yeah, I'd say it's pretty likely in the collective unconsciousness of mankind a spice rack is hard to come by." Some of the people on the train? Lead really strange lives. Guess he's got a lot to get used to. "Here you go, a normal smore, another one with finely minced strawberry between the marshmallow and melted chocolate, and-" He puts down a mug of freshly poured hot chocolate, and tops it off with whipped cream. "-Something to wash it all down. I figure if you're not used to normal food you might want some variety to decide what you like."

He casts a wary eye at the persona nomming on the ghoul and, you know, if it works it works. Seems like that might give it a stomach ache or something, sheesh.

"I'm Hunk, by the way," he awkwardly introduces himself, looking away from the persona. "I'm still cooking, theoretically. So long as we don't get attacked again. So if you want more samples I can set some aside for you."

Ok, I'ma assume Hunk is cooking like the ironchef name implies

[elevatoravatar]

"I am Elizabeth. Once of the Velvet Room."

She takes the food and sniffs it, "Hrm... You made these marshed mallows, did you not? I do not smell the usual preservatives in them. Also mincing the strawberry without using an alcohol base to slightly jelly it is a nice touch."

She chews on them delicately, pondering the finer points of the flavor.

Minor Inconvenience

[redprayer]

“I cannot say what the ‘missions’ are normally like,” Rezo admits, “But this seems an interesting way of protecting this world.”

Rezo personally does not want to cook, or at least he’s doubtful that this is an area he should be trusted with when the fate of a world is at stake but unfortunately, he was way too prideful to come out and say it when tasks were being assigned.

Thankfully this young man seems to know what he’s doing and Rezo isn’t so prideful that he’s going to ignore Hunk’s instructions. Rezo manages to grab the mitts without knocking into anything else on the surface and obediently retrieves the cake.

Of course, now that Rezo has the cake, he is not entirely sure what to do with it, so he’s just looming about uselessly with a cake in his mitt-clad hands. “Does this go out front with the others…?”

[ironchef]

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of just appeasing some underage god because I feel like it's a little unfair a bunch of us are teenagers answering to someone basically our own age. But I really like cooking, so this is my favorite way to save the world. I mean, we could try to kick someone's butt, but this is pretty chill, am I right?"

Though he's gotten very used to aliens not understanding cooking, so Rezo standing there awkwardly is familiar at least. Even if it's garden variety 'I don't cook often' confusion rather than sheer raw interplanetary 'what even is this'?

"Put it down on this." He taps the counter. "Iiii put my spinning cake-stand somewhere and now I can't find it." He's done the thing of putting it somewhere safe but in actuality hiding it from his own self. Might as well have stuck it in a pocket dimension. "I wonder how the haunted house is doing?"

[redprayer]

Rezo’s not really sure who it would be fair to put in the position of appeasing a youthful god, but nods along with what Hunk says anyway. “This is certainly an unexpectedly peaceful assignment.” Although Rezo might have been more in his element if he was at the haunted house- he’s primarily a priest, but he can still throw a Flare Arrow or two around. (Or a good deal worse than that, actually...)

“I have faith they will be well. Many of our allies are seasoned warriors.” Rezo slides the cake gently onto the counter that Hunk was tapping on. “Or experienced healers. And it seems that if anyone dies, the train is capable of fixing that.”

He could probably stand to say that in a less serene way, but hey.

[ironchef]

"Well, even if the train can fix it, I'd rather not see anyone die. Or be hurt in general, but definitely not die."

While the cake is cooling he continues to look for that spinning cake-stand, doing the tried and true thing of looking in the same place three times to make sure he's not missed the forest for the trees.

"Having healers around is a pretty good thing. We have tanks back home that can help but this is so much easier, and personal. I think having someone at your side when your hurt is way better than just being stuck somewhere alone and in pain." At least it'd make him feel better, anyway. But even the people that wouldn't want to be seen injured he suspects would benefit from the feeling of kinship that would come with a dedicated healer.

He's seen people self-sacrifice. It always breaks his heart a little. He's pretty sure it would still even if they came back.

[redprayer]

Rezo also begins poking around the various nooks and crannies, albeit slowly and methodically. Spinning cake stand, spinning cake stand… He finds a trivet, but no part of it spins so it gets put back and he continues his search.

“Companionship can be very reassuring, can’t it? No one person can do everything by themselves. Or at least, it eases the burden.” His voice is thoughtful, even though his hands are preoccupied. Sagely pontificating comes easily to him.

His hand reaches between some boxes and comes into contact with something metal, like a small table- ah, a stand, and yes, he can make the top of it move around. Rezo wraps his hand around the base and holds it up.

“Is this what you’re looking for?”

[ironchef]

"Yeah! That's it. Thanks!" He beams a wide grin, clearing out a space to start his set up. He takes it to set near the cake and start mixing the ingredients for the icing.

"Yeah, that's been my experience. I don't like that we didn't have much choice in coming here, but I'm glad we all understand that and we're all in it together. Everyone here seems to want to genuinely help."

Maybe for different reasons, and some people are pretty messed up. But they still want to help. He'd rather see everyone being their best selves.

[redprayer]

“We’re all in it together,” Hunk says, and Rezo makes a noncommittal noise and tries not to think about the fact there’s at least one person who would probably throw Rezo through a train window if he could.

Cake decorating, alas, is another aspect of cooking that Rezo is of little use for. Rather than loom awkwardly near Hunk’s elbow, again, Rezo opts to ask “Is there anything else I can find for you?”

Second-Hand Embarassment

[yearrounder]

"Gods, don't even joke about that." Honestly, Annabeth can't even believe that the gods aren't listening, and really, Cupid is the worst, apparently.

Well. Short of Hera, anyway. If nothing else, at least it seems like her cow curse is on hold on the train. That's something of a relief for now. Until all the pink and hearts had showed up. And here with no Percy to torment with them. She would have loved to chuck heart-shaped glitter all over his hair.

"Trust me, you don't want to make Cupid angry. He's not all love pink and warm fuzzies and hearts. He uses a weapon for a reason."

[ironchef]

"You know? That would make a lot of sense. I've seen how many times my friend Lance has gotten his heart broken so Cupid seems like a pretty rough dude." Hunk is, surprisingly, being entirely serious here. If there's anything that says how violent a god of love can be, it's seeing someone with a broken heart.

Hunk's never dated anyone though. He'll have to make assumptions on how that emotional sadism goes from empirical observation. He is a scientist as well as a mech pilot and a cook, after all.

"There are some pretty gnarly archers already around. They probably didn't need Cupid here anyway."

[yearrounder]

"That's never stopped him before." That's the worst part about him, really. And his mother. Inserting themselves wherever they wanted, making things more "interesting."

She's still never forgiven Aphrodite for that. At the top of Annabeth's list, right after Hera. Both of them just need to keep their noses in their own business.

"Honestly we should just change the subject before he knocks a door down and starts firing."

[ironchef]

"You know, the description of Cupid kicking down a door shooting? Pretty much suits the mental image I have on how he works. It practically does when he's just a metaphor, too. It's only suffering."

Thought as cute as the sentiment is there's... well, if Lance was here and could bring it up, he wouldn't bring it up. His last girlfriend self-sacrificed to save all of reality and honestly how can you even get a crush again after a number like that?

"So how do you know gods? Personally, I mean."

[yearrounder]

"Uh." Well. She'd done it to herself, running her mouth and trying not to entire a god to come and step on her out of spite, so there's no hiding the secret now. She has got to get better at this.

"I may, uh. Be related. To most of them." Maybe if she's lucky she'll just sound crazy and he'll laugh it off. But then, she has learned to never expect the best-case scenario for a reason.

embarrassment

[wishalone]

Kyoko will never, ever, ever think something like, 'maybe it's a good thing Mami isn't here after all.' But if the train is gonna pull this kinda shit...

What do you call the kind of embarrassment that comes from 'man, I would be so screwed if things had turned out differently'? Because that's where Kyoko is right now. She is deep in it. Mired. And sits like she's in trouble anyway, paranoid, slouched heavily in her seat with her shoulders up around her ears defensively.

"I'unno." Her reply to his question about where the train is from is a grouchy grumble. As for his other question... "For all we know, it ain't even actually Valentine's Day. And the train's just doing this 'cause." That said... Unlike other people, Kyoko doesn't think the train is doing this to be mean or anything. "It would totally be on point for her to be thinking she's actually helpin', and doin' it without asking anybody."

[ironchef]

That? Looks like a girl with a crush. Or a person waiting to be shot. Both are similar feelings, as far as he's aware and has observed. Hunk himself? Hasn't done a whole lot of the crushing thing, but he's sensitive to the love others carry between them.

"Yeah, that's likely. I knew some aliens that decided they liked some cultural quirk from another world or something. Happens way more than you'd expect. But I guess there are worse holidays the train could have liked. Like 'Columbus Day'. Yuck. Valentines day just gives me the excuse to make cupcakes."

As if Kyoko needed more Mami reminders.

[wishalone]

Kyoko is having mixed feelings right now. She's hit by the really powerful desire to taste Mami's cooking again. She misses Mami's cakes. She even misses Mami's teas, and she isn't actually that big into hot tea (don't tell Mami). It doesn't matter what it is -- When Mami makes it, it's special.

... On the other hand.

"You're making cupcakes?"

She's still a walking stomach.

[ironchef]

"Yeah! And they're strawberry 'cause, duh, there's no better fruit to use on fake Valentines Day. Chocolate is a close second but I could always bust out one of the ice molds and make little jam-filled chocolates in those. Just need to see if we have the ingredients."

He makes finger-guns at Kyoko. "But if you give me a holiday? Then everyone is getting themed food. Because that's what they're all about, right? Besides, the quiet time waiting for food to get done is one of the best times to get to know someone. No worrying about etiquette, just cleaning up the prepwork and hanging out and eating leftover batter out of mixing bowls."

Second-Hand Embarrassment

[ballseeker]

Bulma... laughs as the train announces that she has feelings for, of all people... her husband. Of course she has strong feelings for him, despite being a little troll doll of an alien, and after kids and everything... it would be odder if she didn't. Anyway - Hunk's offer is met with a warm smile. It's a very sweet offer some someone she doesn't even know, and since she's not exactly a cook herself, she thinks it's probably best if she takes him up on the offer if he wants to.

"Well, I think it might be a bit more work than you may be used to, feeding a saiyan." After all, Bulma herself wasn't a massive appetite, but Vegeta tended to eat enough for four or five people in a sitting to be even close to satisfied. And after a day of harder training.. she might as well run a buffet in their home, really.

"But it is a kind offer. I just find it funny that the train feels the need to announce it as if Vegeta and I aren't already married."