justhugalready | Test Drive

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, if you don't point it out, than neither will he. Being a rodent will just simply have to be the big white elephant in the room.]

No. Before arriving here, I was at my home, meditating. [The fact that 'his home' was a decommissioned subway station connected to the sewers of New York and shared with four anthropomorphic turtles and a teenage girl could be heavily glossed over.] After arriving here, it is difficult to know where to begin in a search for information.

[None of that was information that was worth withholding, after all.] Allow me to introduce myself- You may call me Splinter.

Well, at least the weather's nice. Maybe I'll just call it a vacation.

[Just because having a big rat in front of you is strange doesn't mean that pointing it out and yelling about it is going to do any good.]

Where is your home, anyway? By your clothes and accent I want to say 'Japan,' but... well, you don't quite look Japanese.

[...at least, not without being at least a little discreet. And speaking of which...]

Splinter, eh. Just call me 'Blues.'

[The man has a sort of clever intuition- and to that, the rodent's snout and whiskers quirk in a sort of smile.] Yes, once- However, like many of my kind, I now reside in New York.

[...Whether he means 'the Japanese', 'rats', or 'mutants', it's really not clear..]

It is good to meet you, Blues. [A soft nod.] And where is your home?

...Wow. I guess all that talk of the rats in New York is true.

[Funny how he mostly seems sincere in his awkward astonishment. Mostly. In part, he can't believe it even after hearing it spoken. But it is right in front of him nonetheless...

His own home, however... that's a trickier thing to answer. Especially when he has the luxury of being able to conceal his own lack of humanity.]

I... don't know if you could call it a home anymore. I left it a long time ago and haven't really found anywhere to settle down.

But it's good to know you're from earth, because I'm starting to think this place isn't anywhere on the map.

[A dry chuckle- hey, at least he can admit to what he is with a sort of humor.]

Perhaps so. I believe most do not quite reach my size.

[But the rat quiets as Blues begins about his own home situation. His expression remains-- well, something that might be considered pensive, for a rodent. The white brows furrow, whiskers dropping down, considering the meaning there. He seemed more earnest than a true fugitive would be... though whatever reasoning he had for leaving his home, they surely were personal.]

I see. So you are a wanderer.

As for this city-- While I do not recognize it, what makes you think we're no longer on Earth? [It's honest curiosity. he can't say they are, and he can't say they aren't, really. The lack of knowledge is, to a certain degree, frustrating... but a challenge he must recognize and work through.]

[He had plenty of ways he could express the fact; but not a whole lot of ways to dumb it down. Or to keep 'Splinter' here from asking some questions of his own.

He'd just assume this giant rat wasn't too far off from the sort of people he knew back at whatever passed for his 'home.']

...Alright. You know what GPS is, right? I have one on me, and there's no signal to be found. Those satellites are positioned in orbit all across the globe, and I've never even heard of there being a dead zone for it. Not unless you're underground or something.

I'd thought it might have been broken- [Not like all of him was in the best of shape, anyhow...] -until I saw the writing they use here. It doesn't match up to any known script on earth.

...and I was made to learn all of them.

[He nods to show his knowledge of a GPS- and the fact that the man had one that couldn't locate anything... Well, that certainly was problematic.]

So either something is interfering, or they are not in existence here. [Another nod, following along. Well, at least until Blues mentioned knowing all the scripts.] ...Made, you say?

[That's certainly interesting, and his ears quirk up at it. A claw comes back to his front to stroke at the long strands of fur at his chin, lips curling into a curious smile as best they can.] I hope you don't mind me asking what you mean.

Right. If it's the former, then maybe it's all these weird lights jamming it up. If it's the latter... I don't know how you'd lose twenty-four satellites in the span of a few--

[And there was the question. Damn. Not the best wording he could have used...!]

Ah, my old man taught me way back when. I guess he was trying to train me to be able to speak to anyone in the world. Point is, I've never seen anything like it.

...But I can still read it. That's the really strange part.

Yes. That many lost in such a short span would be quite unheard of. The technology needed would be incredible.

[-Aha. Nice save, but that's still kind of a strange situation.]

I see. Your 'old man' wanted you to learn every written form on Earth. [An eyebrow quirks, and the claw pauses in its beard-tugging.] How did he go about teaching you this skill?

[He can come back to the whole 'auto-understanding language' thing- First they need to establish no bullshitting your sensei. :T ]

[He was growing less fond of that stare and how it tried to bore through him like some kind of eye laser.]

He set me up with a very good language program. I don't know what else I can tell you.

[Especially since it was true, by any metric.]

He was the real genius, not me.

I see. [-That Blues here will not be completely forthright. But rather than pursue it needlessly, he simply leaves the inquiring at that, finally pulling that knowing stare from the young man and looking back out towards the more populated part of town.]

But you do raise a point. If the writing is unfamiliar, we shouldn't understand the inscriptions. I, too, cannot identify the letters or words, but the meaning comes across nonetheless.

There is also the speed of our extraction from our own homes. ['Homes'. Sorry, Blues.] I do not know anything that would take us so far in such little time.

[...Perhaps the turtles had better leads back home. They were adept at solving problems like this, after all.]

I've been wondering that myself. You were awake at the time, right? Do you remember feeling anything strange?

[This 'rat' was probably a little bit more aware of his surroundings at the time than he was, anyhow.]

I've teleported before, but I don't think that's what happened here. Pretty sure I'd remember something like that, and it doesn't happen that quickly.

Test Drive - April Edition

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