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

[espigeonage]

[Julien lets himself be pulled out of his nook, stepping carefully. Despite his claws and the sense that he's not used to his long, gangling legs, Julien is graceful and moves almost silently. He watches his new friend, deciding that he can't be from Locke, and speaks carefully.]

Ah... well, I was human, yeah. For a long time. [He presses his lips together, shakes his head, and moves on.] But I've been changing for... god, it's been a year already?

[It's surprising to think about. April to March. His lungs changing, to growing wings.]

...A year. Yeah. There's... there was something dumped in the water once, but nothing else I'd call a mutagen, and things were happening before that. I got these two weeks ago falling off a roof like a fucking idiot. [He shifts his wings and tightens his clawed toes on the ground beneath him, seeming more unhappy than bitter and more bitter than angry.]

[ratdori]

[he listens carefully and intently, trying to slot the information given by Julien with what he understood of the current plight faced by the city. From his own experiences, he knew the Kraang mutagen to be relatively immediate in its effects... though the process described by Julien seemed slow and ongoing.]

I am sorry to hear of your hardship. [Respectfully, he lowers his head for a moment, ears falling back. After a short pause, he lifts them again, looking up at the lean, feathered man before him.]

I am Splinter. I, too, was once a man, before changing to this form. However, the chemical that caused it was far faster than what you are describing. [Thick, white brows furrow together, seeking understanding.]

Did this happen to you here?

[espigeonage]

Um... well, thank you. I get by, it's just messy sometimes. [It's important to Julien to always, or usually at least, come across as well-adjusted. Happy, or at least on an even keel. At least he feels less self conscious about being this birdy around an anthropomorphic rodent.] Gotta cope with what you can, right?

Nah, this was in Locke, in New Jersey. [It's a game-specific city, not existing in any other reality.] I'd like to think if I'm stuck wherever this is I won't get anything else, but I guess I just have to wait! How about you - Splinter, huh? Cool.

[ratdori]

Ah... New Jersey. [He doesn't recognize the specific city, but-- Well. New Jersey. And if the Kraang were in New York, it made sense for them to be in Jersey as well-- perhaps experimenting with a different strain of mutagen?

Hmm. It was the sort of thing he's certain Donatello would figure out.]

I was in New York. I live there still, though it has been a number of years since my exposure. [And- like Julien says, they have to cope. And as he had told the turtles-- there are many things that he had gained from his transformation.]

At least know you are not alone, Julien. I commend your ability to remain pliable and adaptive to your changed form.

[espigeonage]

[Julien grins. The color of his teeth isn't quite right - they're more like an internal beak now.] I know, I know! Jersey's got a bad rep! But Locke's nice, or it was before the aliens and stuff. You from the city proper, or just the state?

Hah, thanks. You wouldn't say that if you'd seen me a couple weeks ago. [He says it lightly, as a joke, but he's been taking it hard.] Back home I worked in a charity clinic in a bad part of town. Had to quit since, y'know. [Julien flares his tail out behind him and narrows it again.] Looks like people don't care so much about that here.

[ratdori]

The city itself. And while reputations may be misleading, they often have a grain of truth behind them in some fashion or another.

[Not that new York is that wonderful of a place, of course. But-- well, home sweet home.]

-Aliens, you say? [Definitely Kraang. But he doesn't wish to ignore Julien's mention of his clinic or hardships, so-- he shifts with the conversation, his own tail moving lightly from one side to the other in thought. Not large motions, nor wagging, but simple, evenly-paced movements.]

Even the strongest hearts waver when faced with hard truth. While in the past you may have had difficulty, the present is what you have power over. Had I seen you a few weeks ago as well as now, perhaps I would be even further impressed with your strength.

[espigeonage]

Cool. I've been to NYC, but it's been years.

Aliens, and pink lights, and the giant stone snake thing that showed up. Things've been exciting. [He watches Splinter evenly.] I don't think you've heard of any of this? It's mostly been covert until, well... around two weeks ago.

How pragmatic! I do tend to... get used to things, it's true. Can't change the past, you have to face the future, I guess the present's in there somewhere. [He likes to sound relaxed and breezy about these things. Too much regard makes Julien more uncomfortable - it's part of why he's so unhappy with the visual change.] I'll be okay, really! Anyway, you know a lot about me, now. [...he's tending to be a little more on the secretive side these days.]

[ratdori]

Hmm. I know nothing of significant pink lights or stone snakes- though we have our own share of troubles in New York. Do you know anything about the aliens? Their aim, perhaps?

[Though he can recognize Julien's attempts to draw back from fully discussing the difficulty of his change. Perhaps he-- had gotten slightly over eager to speak to the young man. The combination of a youth his sons' age, and their mutual transformations...

He nods.]

Yes. I appreciate your forthrightness. Perhaps instead we should look into this city we've come to.

[espigeonage]

Very little! I never had much to do with aliens, directly. Did hear that they wanted us - the people changing - out of the way. Meaning dead. We kept messing up its or their plans... There was just one in Locke. The police were in collusion with it. It's dead now, it dying woke up a kaiju-sized snake underground, and I have no idea what happens now. They'll get on fine without me, though.

[he already had to quit work, and... he's moral support at best otherwise, really.]

Heh. Saeng Seong, huh? I don't think this is anywhere near the East Coast. The stars are all unfamiliar, and the landscape sounds totally different.

...I have some weird senses. [He sees stars in the day, hears the deep rumbling of wind on mountains and waves on the shore.]

[ratdori]

[Extermination efforts on the mutated and a large, reptilian beast from under the ground. All things to keep in mind, though he had no way to apply the information just now. But it all spoke of the Kraang and a farther-reaching influence than he and his sons were prepared for.]

Senses, yes. Weird, no. If they are so keen as to allow you to track star patterns in daylight, then they are likely of use.

[And at the mention-- he pauses to close his eyes and inhale deeply through his nose. The air is so much clearer here-- Far different from the musted, organic smell of the sewers and underground system- much less rust and metal and oil and grease. Certainly not New York.]

...It is Spring, also. [Or so he'll guess, given the mild weather and the abundance of flowering scents.] That was not the case back home.

[Southern hemisphere, perhaps?]

[espigeonage]

Oh, they're weird! 'Useful' doesn't preclude weird at all.

[Idly Julien half-opens his wings and stretches, taking up a great deal of space, and considers getting to the closest rooftop. He thinks he could make it.]

It's spring in Locke, too. Well, technically spring. The winter's run long. [Julien raises a blue-dyed eyebrow. Do not ask me how he got his eyebrows and eyelashes colored.] It's not March for you?

[ratdori]

I suppose it does not.

[So much for his attempt there. At the question, he shakes his head, whiskers tilting back along the line of his snout.] No. Not quite.

[And falls silent again, clearly in thought here. New Jersey was not far from New York-- there are a lot of options to consider. That time had passed between his meditation at home and his waking here-- or that time was different between his New York and Julien's New Jersey...]

This whole situation is troubling.

[espigeonage]

And you haven't heard of the troubles in Locke. They've been pretty serious for a while, actually. Bombings, earthquake, now the kaiju snake wrecking half the business district and people fighting it in giant robots, the FBI everywhere...

[Julien paces - struts, really, with those legs - in a wide circle around Splinter.]

I'm connected somehow to a guy from the future, who's either a ninja or a spy and happens to be part or all bird, and humans are dying out. I know a guy who could tell me about a very different future, where humans are doing just fine. Gotta wonder if this is like that.

[He stops and smiles wryly.] There was a point in my life when that idea would've sounded even more ridiculous, you know.