Test Drive - April Edition

[rekindlemods]

Happy early April and spring! Here's a new test drive to go with it! Trying to see if a character will fit or work in the setting? Need some interaction samples? Well this meme is for you! Make a post, tag around, and most importantly, have fun! Here's the setting page for those who want to learn a little more about the city itself. And don't forget to go reserve your character, GO GO GO.......

Here's some prompts to help you get started, if you need it:

Option 1

[Something went wrong with your arrival, or perhaps the security around the gates was lax. Either way, you find yourself outside the city and in place that's providing a steady drain on your energy and looking a lot less warm and welcoming. Particularly those insects of unusual size skittering down the sides of the buildings, just waiting for the wrong movement to be made before swarming. There's an alarm being raised on the other side of the city walls, and it sounds like help is on the way…But will it come fast enough?]

Option 2

[There's a bustle of activity in some parts of the city; people fussing over generators that look freshly installed (and also look oddly lantern like; one more oddity to add to this place) and trying to get them up and running. It looks like they could use a hand or two to help…And oddly enough, given the instructions, hand holding to help power these devices.]

Option 3

[Spring is here! Or at least close at hand, with all the flowers beginning to bud in the trees and the grassy areas. (There might even be a few small animals on hand, too!) Even a change in decoration as little charms and masks are hung up on buildings and the like. Chances are, there might be some other people out enjoying the spring weather, too.]

Option 4

[Whoops. Looks like you haven't taken the cautionary words of the other NPCs to heart, or maybe you just wanted to take your chances. Either way, the withdrawal symptoms have started and you need to find someone to hug quickly before you get even more sick.]

Option 5

[If there's something else you wanted to play with, that you didn't see here, then have fun with that. You've just arrived in a strange city, after all. There's got to be plenty to explore out and about, not to mention people to meet.]

Comments

[wurstisyettocome]

[he seems to pause, and there's a clear expression of concentration and then]

That's a lot.

[freeasabook]

...yes. Yes, it is. Ninety-five people out of every hundred died.

That is bad. [He would've said that flatly, but Nageki's practically always flat-sounding.]

[wurstisyettocome]

But people die all the time, especially in war. Over 95 percent of the people I've known are dead. [of course, that's because he was a nation close to one thousand years old]

[freeasabook]

[Nageki's just going to assume there's some lapse in understanding here.]

This was within thirty years. Seventy out of every hundred died in the first two years, just of the disease. It was like this all over the world.

[wurstisyettocome]

And your point? [he doesn't say it in a way that is mean, but in a way the denotes, he's truly not getting it]

People die, it's kind of their thing. I lived through plagues, can't be too bad.

[freeasabook]

...

[Birds don't really have facial expressions. Otherwise this one-eyed look would have been withering.

Trying to explain would have taken a lot of effort and energy. Even here, Nageki doesn't have a lot, and he doesn't know this guy.]

I care.

[With that he opens his book and turns his attention to it.]

[wurstisyettocome]

Oh... [he thinks about it] I guess it's kind of hard. I mean, I miss my old man, but there's been thousands of people since then, and other than my fellow nations, I don't get to keep them for more than fifty years.

[shadowsgambit]

[Seras appears to have nearly run into a horned giantess - except well, she's not really a giant at all. Sure, she's eight feet tall, but calling her a giant will earn a blank look and a correction, at least.

She makes a dismissive gesture with her hand.]

Don't worry about it. It's kind of distracting, I know.

[died_a_virgin]

This whole place is rather distracting. I haven't been here for very long.

[Seras was wondering how she was going to handle being without her master and Sir Integra. It was going to take some getting used to. Then again, the whole physical contact thing was going to take getting used to as well.]

I'm Seras Victoria.

[shadowsgambit]

Fortuna was about to ask about shut-down, but then, as she pulled her drones back over the wall too, she realized what had looked like strange armor to match obvious cyberware arms and legs from that distance and through the odd angles of the drones' cameras, looked more like...casing? She wasn't looking at cyberware at all, was she?

In return for that weirdness, Layer might notice a bit of weirdness herself, if she catches sight of the cord that trails from behind her ear to somewhere beneath her coat.

"Yeah, places like outside the walls drain your energy fast."

[protomensch]

At least I'm not the only one. What's your name, anyway?

[Shaking hands with someone you'd never met was never an easy thing to do. Not that he'd be much firmer himself; he's not sure if it's obvious by touch that his hand isn't quite the real thing.

Thankfully, the glowing and soft humming of the lantern generator's ignition made for a good distraction.]

Okay, pretty sure that's impossible. Explains the weird wiring though.

[protomensch]

"Not what I'd call 'efficiency' either way..." ...But it wasn't like she didn't have a point nonetheless. Or like he wanted to spend any extra time out here.

When he eventually caught up, his gaze went to the gates alongside hers. It wasn't the strangest part of the state of affairs he'd witnessed since he'd arrived, but now that she mentioned it he was surprised he didn't notice sooner.

"...Maybe whatever they're sounding it over is inside the city," he offered. "Or maybe they've got someone of their own out here. Either way we should--"

But he was stopped in his tracks on foot and in thought when he reached out to grab Layer by the shoulder, his power started stabilizing.

"...Wait. Do you feel that?"

[bridgebunny]

Hailing from such a technologically-advanced civilization, the cord does catch her eye, but she made no verbal note of it. It does bring up a few questions on the level of tech this place has when, looking out at the place now, she saw nothing that matches it.

"...I did notice that my energy levels evened out once I scaled the wall. What's out there that's causing the drain?"

[earthshards]

[The mental image of an elephant sneezing and someone being in the path of said sneeze comes to mind, and Terra can't help but laugh quietly in amusement.] Good point.

[Still...] You're probably going to be sneezing a lot, now that the weather is warming up.

[A pity that spring usually comes with the occasional sneeze or two; all that pollen in the air can really mess with you.

He looks at Goofy curiously as he crosses his arms.] I don't think I've seen you around. Did you just get here?

[thekingsshield]

[Just as planned. Laughter always made for a great introduction. Hopefully it would also make his questions easier to answer.]

Sure did... wherever here might be. Where are we, anyhow?

[bridgebunny]

Layer moved at a start, glancing briefly at the hand on her shoulder before looking out.

"I..."

Wait. The alarms in her systems had stopped.

"How unusual. In one moment the oppressive atmosphere was there, but now it's gone. Yet no diagnostics are giving me any information worthwhile. Whatever was draining our power cores has gone silent."

[simpleness]

[ Tiz still has his gloves on, and he's not exactly the perceptive type, so if there is something off about the handshake he's not likely to notice. And it works for the generator, which is good enough.

That's ... definitely pretty amazing, so he pretty much drops the handshake as soon as the lantern starts working and replaces it with a few moments of astonished staring. ]

Uh — wow ... It really worked. [ That's still kind of half of a statement and half of a question. It's only a few seconds before he remembers they were (sort of) conversing and tries to pay the lantern less attention. ]

Oh, I'm Tiz Arrior. What about you?

[blazeoflife]

Oh, it's totally weird; but it's to keep ya feeling healthy, so sometimes you forget it's weird.

[Sure enough, a handshake later and the generator was working. Looking back with an 'I told you so grin, his eyebrows knitted a bit at the question.]

Not a damn clue; I don't think any of the Guests know, either. All we know is it works...

[earthshards]

[The initial 'where am I?' confusion was something he could fully empathize with.] I'm not sure what world we're on, but the city is called Saeng Seong. The people here brought us to help with an energy problem.

[He's still not sure why this help requires shaking hands and hugging, but he's learning to live with it.]

[shadowsgambit]

Fortuna. Nice to meet you. [She offers a handshake.] Welcome to the gilded cage.

[shadowsgambit]

"Nobody's really sure," Fortuna said as she took a small black box from her coat - it was connected to the cord trailing up behind her hair - and pressed a couple buttons on it. She disconnected the cord from the box and from whatever it was connected to on her head and tucked both back into her coat.

"Far as I know, there was some kind of disaster a long time ago, trashed the energy levels in the place. So they're bringing people in to be living batteries."

[bridgebunny]

"L-living... living batteries?" Oh. Oh, my.

"Then you would be in thrall with those that originated here?" Not the most delicate subject, but if she had to end some reign of slavery, she darn well could!

"How exactly are you being used in such a manner?"

[shadowsgambit]

"It's not as bad as it sounds... Still a gilded cage, but it's gilded, you know?" And here she'd thought the energy drain from her drones being out there wouldn't hurt her too much. "Energy's generated when two foreigners touch each other. So me pulling you up the wall just now? That generated some energy for them, and for us too."

[strikeachord]

Fortuna's question elicits a sheepish sort of grin and Billy stretches his arms over his head, then locks his fingers at the back of his neck.

"More like they were runnin' from me and my pal, really," he says, sounding rather proud of himself for the fact. "Those mob guys got a way of gettin' real angry at a fella for messin' up their operations." His smile turns mischievous and he closes one eye in an extended wink. "Why?" he wonders. "You worried about me, miss? Or are you the kinda gal who hauls in troublemakers like me?"

[shadowsgambit]

She snickers. She doesn't mention his behavior; it's kind of a novelty for someone who isn't a fellow goblinoid to be flirting with her, too out of the ordinary to even annoy her. "Do I look like a badge to you? More like I'm one of the troublemakers too."

Of course, her troublemaking recently averted a catastrophic disaster, so how much "trouble" it actually was was questionable in this case.