Test Drive 035

[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!

Stable Duties

The latest carriage to have been added to the Voidtreckers express is one for large animals. It contains stables downstairs and smaller places for animals upstairs.

Until now the bottom half of the carriage has been mostly empty, with large animals new to the options of creatures voidtreckers can purchase from the shop. But as voidtreckers wake up one morning those going through the carriage will find they each have a creature in them. Large as a warhorse, with six legs, long necks and longer noses. What are they? What do they eat? Why are they here?

No answers are readily available but anyone who gets close will get a nose in their face and then an enthusiastic giant nuzzling them. They are friendly it seems. Very friendly.

Friendly Competition

The lower floor of this carriage is open and sprawling, with two wide, low tables and plenty of cushions and beanbags. The walls are lined with shelves and wooden chests, both filled with games. Board games, card games, you name it, though train themes feature heavily. On a shelf of its own sits a case of Duel Monsters cards.

The upper floor is split into two. One half has a pile of oversized games - lawn jenga, twister, giant connect4 - and the other, sectioned off with soft rope barriers, hosts a screen, a console, and a variety of video game controllers, including four VR headsets.

Perhaps you’re testing yourself in one of the VR Crisis simulators. Perhaps you’re learning the rules of a competitive card game a little too well, and your friendships are suffering accordingly. Perhaps you’ve convinced someone to play twister with you..?

Eggageration of Harm

The mission the voidtreckers are sent on seems like a very strange one. The annual spring festival of the kingdom of Fahr is in ruins after a hoard of raiders wearing rabbit masks wreaked destruction, smashing up festival stalls and stealing the intricately carved eggs that had been dedicated to the goddess of spring.

The king of Fahr suspects the raiders come from across the border from the neighbouring kingdom Fehl and has amassed his army to take the eggs back. The king of Fahl denies everything but has been given an ultimatum, if the eggs are not returned the two kingdoms will go to war.

Team One

Investigate what really happened. Are the rabbit masked raiders from the kingdom of Fahl or were they just opportunist criminals? Is war their aim or did they just steal for profit? Try and find out what really happened and, perhaps even more difficult, report the correct findings to the king.

Team Two

Find those eggs! The bunny raiders left clues of course, footprints and trails. Follow them and try and find the eggs before time runs out. The raiders it seems hid most of them, perhaps to return for later, perhaps once they realised they would be caught eventually. Recover the eggs and get them back to the shrines before time runs out.

Team Three

Even though the eggs are the crime the king of Fahr is concentrating on many people had their stalls and livelihoods wrecked. Help them by fixing up the stalls, recovering merchandise and even re-baking their cakes and other spring treats.

Comments

[dentdelion]

[Idia, maybe they need to sit down and discuss renting out the bittiest NRC student to some other casts in this game. There's a lot of danmeis and they're used to taking on proteges, some of which are very loud: maybe Sebek could cultivate his way to volume control? And they can earn $2.50 in setting cash per hour in exchange.

Think about it. Call him. They can work out a plan.]

You actually ever caught anything?

[Look alive, that branch he pushed past is gonna swing back, and while it won't kill either of them it's still a branch swinging back.]

[zigajoule]

[ Hmph! At least charge $2.75! ]

I did! I caught a salmon larger than I was, and my brother and sister had to help me reel it in!

[ The pride in his voice can not be more evident, and as the branch swings back, it smacks against Sebek. However, he just pushes it away like it was nothing. ]

[dentdelion]

It's okay, you don't haveta lie.

[Ah, that's another egg- no, that is not an egg, that's a random stone that looked vaguely egg shaped. Which is likely for the best, as if he handled too many eggs Ruggie would start asking himself what the resell value was of them.]

Who's gonna judge you if you never caught a thing?

[zigajoule]

[ And just like that, the joy and pride in his tone transforms into heated offense. Why does Ruggie think he couldn't catch a fish? ]

I did catch a salmon!! I have caught many fish besides that! Why, my grandfather had actually smiled at me after having doing so!!

[ ... Or the meal his siblings made from the fish he caught, but he had a hand in it! ]

[dentdelion]

[Uh huh.]

Were the fish deaf?

[There's also other options like how the version of fishing they did involved throwing a magic bomb into a river and blowing the wholeass thing up or something, ala Breath of the Wild. (Not that he would know what that was, but the point being.)]

Ah. Watch yourself.

[Moderate incline ahead, as the official Eggsitter of this team-up the eggs need to be moderately protected and vaguely sheltered.]

[zigajoule]

[ A good question given he caught the fish near his grandfather's, who has a temper like Sebek, but Sebek was also a lot smaller then too. Maybe even quieter since he was mostly alone then. ]

Why would the fish be deaf? It was a large, perfectly normal salmon! And then we had it for dinner!

[ He does stop talking for a moment to look around. Briar Valley is full of steep cliffs, so this is like a walk back home if he's honest. ]

What am I watching for?

[dentdelion]

I-

[His mouth worked a bit as several questions came to mind and were discarded all at once - if that salmon was truly normal, what was Sebek's family like, were they as loud as he was, what if they were and this was just a normal Thorn Valley thing, did everybody shout in Thorn Valley? Also, was the way they cooked the fish...normal, or was it cooked in the same way Lilia massacred food on the regular? Why was Diasomnia like this?]

Just thought I'd remind ya to watch yourself so you didn't drop the eggs 'cause you got too distracted, 's all.

[Missing Silver a lot right now.]

[zigajoule]

[ Don't ask, Ruggie. He will have little problem telling all about his mother and how she is a powerful, gifted fae and so on and so on. Also, technically it wasn't cooked at all as it became salmon carpaccio. ]

I see. Well, this is nothing compared to the mountains back home. I can easily transverse this land.

[ That said, he does shuffle the eggs a bit more in his arms to make sure they really are secure.

Sebek doesn't miss Silver. Silver needs to be with Master Malleus! (Sebek does actually miss Silver.) ]

[dentdelion]

[This brings up several more good questions, and Ruggie very nearly, so very nearly asks about Sebek's family. There's an AU in which he makes the mistake of asking Sebek about his mother and has to resort to using Laugh With Me and a nearby tree branch in an attempt to stem the proud flow of words. (Which wouldn't work; Sebek cannot remain silent.)]

So...

[...]

...you're telling me all of this would be easier if I just left ya to it.

[Isn't that what it kind of feels like? He could go back, Sebek could get his mountain goat going and run around screaming for people to come fight him or something...everyone would be happier. Things would be more efficient. Sebek could totally go faster. What could go wrong.]

[zigajoule]

[ Time to watch a lot of fantasy Steve Irwin in the theater car to learn how to handle this croc. ]

...

[ Oh. He guesses he was essentially saying that. Well, of course he was! He and Silver didn't survive without provisions for a week under Lilia's order for no reason! ]

I'm just telling you that your worry is unnecessary! And if you plan to leave me, then return these to the king. That may give us more time to retrieve the others.

[ He holds out one of the fragile eggs toward Ruggie. ]