Itching to try out writing a character? Then rev up your engines, grab your accounts, and slam your way into this meme! Here is a venue for you to try out whatever character there might be tickling your fancy, from fandom to OC, for as few as one and as many as MANY. Seriously, there's no limit.
How do you partake in this fantastic congregation of character testing? Why, by following these simple steps:
→ Comment with the journal of a character you want to test; put their name and canon in the subject line for added sparkles. → Tag around with everyone! → Profit like you live on a the back of a turtle! → Maybe even RESERVE so you CAN live on the back of a turtle!
But wait, there's more! For the low, low price of $9,999.99, you can even use one of our handy prompts when you tag someone. You could even pick one with a Random Number Generator to help decide which prompt to go with!
Haggling Over Something in the Marketplace! Maybe someone else saw the exact same shiny thing you did at the exact same moment! However shall this be resolved? Remember: blood is extremely hard to scrub off of turtle shell!
Dramatic Chase Sequence! You're running away from something! It could be anything, from a rampaging kirin to a gaggle of overly enthusiastic children! One way or another, you can't stop, and much like a katamari ball, you feel obligated to grab everyone in your path along the way to keep them out of danger! Or perhaps you're more the sort to try and knock them into it as a distraction...?
Where There's A Will, There's A...? The Life and Dreaming Planes have been merged, and sometimes what start out as wishful thinking becomes lured into reality. That slick new motorcycle or pile of kingly treasure you were just daydreaming about? Surprise! Though it may only stay for a short while before it disappears again, so make it count. Hopefully you're not the type to daydream about terrible things befalling people you don't like...
SECRET UNDERCOVER MODE ACTIVATE! The three major kedan families all have their own agendas, and you've chosen to entangle yourselves with one (or more!) of them. Are you hoping to shift the balance of power? Gain some favours? Perhaps you're on a mission to bring a criminal to justice, or maybe you just want to get the cream of the crop from the black market.
WILDCARD! Go nuts. Suddenly your character is fighting dragons! Good God, they've found the Millennium Falcon drifting in the ocean! Do you really feel the need to polish every paving stone in the Earth Sector? Anything goes!
Simon had had no reason to believe that the necklace he'd found on him was harmless- indeed, vital to his existence here. This could still be an Alliance trap of some sort, and he wasn't going to trust anything his abductors had given him.
However, he was soon beginning to regret leaving it behind. The further he explored this strange new place, the dizzier he felt. And there was pain in his joints- unnatural pain, given how healthy he tended to keep himself. And there was the tiredness. He finally had to admit that perhaps he'd been mistaken and should keep the necklace on him after all.
However, he'd left it at the base of a market stall, and since they all looked identical to him- and were all staffed by merchants eager to get his business- he was beginning to feel like this was a hopless exercise. The hounding of the merchants was beginning to strain his usual politeness, as well.
The stranger was a point of interest-- he looked like a Foreigner, but not one she recognized, and the pool of them was small enough these days that it was a rarity.
And he didn't look well. Combine the two, and it was enough to make Raine stop, inserting herself between an eager merchant and the newcomer. That could hardly be helping. "Excuse me," she said, polite, to the merchant, and then turned her focus to the newcomer. "You're newly arrived, aren't you? Are you all right?"
There was a staff in her left hand, carried angled behind her and out of the way, and a satchel slung over her right shoulder. She had errands, naturally, the reason she was out in the marketplace in the first place, but they could surely wait for now.
Though she couldn't have said how, River knew when her brother arrived. It was suddenly there in her mind, an instinct, a change in atmosphere. She didn't question it, but finding him was proving a bit more of a challenge; Keeliai wasn't a small city.
So it was a while before she spotted him, looking just as bewildered by the market as he had been on Jiangyin, no matter how much he'd tried to cover it for her. She smiled at the memory, she'd missed him.
"I- I'm fine," Simon mumbled, then sighed and mentally chided himself. He was clearly not okay, and at least this person was asking about him and not trying to court business. "Uhm... yes, I just arrived here a few hours ago, and... the necklace... they gave me. I've misplaced it, and I'm feeling more and more disoriented the more I try to look for it."
From the way he was stumbling over his words, he knew by now he'd been stupid to throw it away. But hindsight was always 20/20.
"River." The relief in Simon's voice as obvious as his sister approached, and before he could stop himself, he'd gathered her close and words were spilling out of his mouth. "What's happened? Are the rest of the crew here? Are you okay?"
"If it was only a few hours ago, you still have time." Raine came a little closer, now obviously studying him, and it struck her that in addition to his unwellness, there was something familiar about him. She couldn't put a finger on it yet, but she filed it away to come back to later. "Loss of a soul gem takes about three days to be fatal. Which way did you come from? We can retrace your steps. The kedan won't keep a soul gem if they know what it is; they know we depend on them."
Her expression creased faintly, despite her primarily clinical tone. Raine was no fonder of relying on them for life than the stranger evidently was. "I'm Raine Sage," she added abruptly, recalling the introduction belatedly, and extended her free hand. "I run the Healers' Guild here."
A doctor named Simon. Added to the vague familiarity... Hm. Possible that this was the brother River had mentioned. Raine looked him over again, considering his features in a more specific context, but ultimately she couldn't tell for sure from that alone, and she said nothing.
"I take it your world doesn't have much in the way of magic?" Raine inquired. She started down the street in the way he'd indicated, steps slow, eyes now on the ground and the merchants' wares rather than Simon himself. He'd put the likelihood of -- what, surveillance? -- over the chance that it was entirely possible his soul had been attached to the necklace. "Not everyone here differentiates between healer and doctor, but if you have formal, thorough medical training, I could use your help. What did the necklace look like?"
"None at all," Simon replied, doing the same- looking toward the ground, the feet of the market stalls, wishing more and more that he'd paid closer attention to where he'd dropped it. "And yes, I've been formally trained." At one of the best academies in the universe, not to brag, he added silently. "It had a stone on it- it was a striking shade of purple, and had a silver chain."
The world she'd gotten used to feeling off kilter righted itself as he put his arms around her, and River exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. For a moment, she'd been afraid that seeing Simon was either a hallucination, or a trick of the Dreaming. But no hallucination, even her vivid ones, could mimic hearing Simon say her name like that, like she was the only important thing he knew.
"They're not here. Inara was, a long time ago, but she left and never came back. Simon, I've been here before. When we go back, we don't remember."
A cautious touch, the buttons on his vest. "You're real."
"Healing artes in my world -- healing magic -- sees primary use on the battlefield," Raine said, venturing something of an explanation. "And only a few of the kedan can learn to use them. If you were willing to teach, you could do a great deal of good. Not only for now, but for the future of this world, as well."
A flash of metal in the sunlight, and Raine detoured from Simon's side to look closer, but it was a dropped coin, nothing like what they were looking for. She fell back into step, considering, eyes still flickering over the stalls and the path. "What's your world called?" she asked, as both a point of genuine curiosity and conversation while they searched. "Many Foreigners are from some version of Earth, but not all."
"I would," Simon agreed. "I have formal education and some experience in field medicine. Anything I could do to help while I am here... I dislike being idle."
Simon's eyes finally spotted something that looked very much like what he was looking for, and he gave a sigh of relief as he spotted the necklace and scooped it up, before turning back to look at Raine, his eyebrows furrowing.
"Earth? But that planet was left behind centuries ago. How is it possible that people are from there?"
Simon looked down into River's eyes before he ran a hand through his precious sister's hair.
"Of course I'm real," he told her, softly, reassuring. "And I won't go away, not as long as I can help it." But he then tilted his head as what River was saying sunk in. "You... have been here before? But that should not... wouldn't we have noticed if you left home?"
She gives him a look, because there have been some things that should be only dreams, made quite real.
"Temporal anomaly," River said, with a pinch between her brows at her inability to better explain it. "They say time freezes. I was here, then I woke up back on Serenity in the same moment. Relativity of simultaneity. Two things that can't exist in the same time and space, but they do."
Then she takes a closer look at him. Around her neck is a blue and green gem. "Simon. What did you do?"
"Centuries ago," Raine repeated, looking curious rather than bemused. "The timeline means a little less here. There are people from all different times and worlds. One of the gentlemen who works at the Guild occasionally is from France in the nineteenth century, if I recall correctly. The twenty-first century appears to be slightly more common, however." She watched Simon carefully. This was all very matter-of-fact to her by now, nothing out of the ordinary, but if he came from a world with no magic it might be harder for him to wrap his head around. "Everyone is simply taken from a different time and place. Some people from the same world do find each other, however, so it's possible..."
Raine discovered she had more questions than she could ask at once, specifically relating to leaving his planet. "Your people left your planet?" she asked, and, "How many years ago? Was it out of necessity, or choice?"
Simon frowned at that. He would have called it impossible, and yet he would have thought it impossible up until a few hours ago that he could be hurtled through time and space and land up on an entirely different planet, and yet... here he was.
"Well, that is not the most bizarre thing I have heard today," he admitted. "And if you were never gone back home, I suppose it must be true." He then reached out and softly touched the gem around her neck. "I had one like this, but... I didn't think it was as important as they said."
He winced internally, knowing she was likely going to scold him for that one. He certainly felt idiotic for not listening by this point.
Simon was quiet as he let himself digest all of that. He supposed that from now on, he would have to learn to try and accept things that didn't make sense, that he felt were impossible, if he could accept that a gem could actually contain his soul, and that a world could have magic.
"Nineteenth century," he repeated slowly. "The year where I came from... it was 2517. It's a bit hard for me to wrap my head around." He took in a breath and let it out slowly. "It happened hundreds of years before I was born, but it was necessity. The world had too many people and too few resources to go around, so humanity just... left. Moved out into space to find greener pastures. We were able to terraform other planets- that is, make them inhabitable for life- so it became a matter of finding another solar system and another planet that could support us and staring anew."
"2517... the twenty-sixth century, then," Raine concluded, taking a second or two longer about the numeration than someone used to the system might.
"Your world became inhabitable... I see. I wonder if..." She trailed off there, her focus turning inward as she considered-- but before too much longer the shook herself and gave her attention to Simon once more, smiling a little apologetically. "Never mind. And now your people occupy several planets? Did you ever find other races that way?"
"If what?" Simon prodded gently, then smiled. "Of course, if you didn't wish to finish that thought, I will not prod." He then shook his head. "Surprisingly, no. Nothing sentient, at least- different plants and animals, but nothing matching human intelligence. Every now and then someone will try to peddle off a deformed animal fetus as an alien at sideshow attractions, but most people just go for the cheap amusement, not because they believe intelligent life has actually been discovered."
"Ah, it's nothing deeply personal." She returned the smile. "It's simply that what records survived say that the elves came to our world several thousand years ago, but nothing specifies why. It's possible that something similar may be the case, which would explain a great deal."
She simply hadn't assumed that the stranger would be interested in the vagaries of her world's history.
"Nothing at all?" Raine seemed more bemused by that than anything else he'd presented, and she shook her head. "Over so many planets? That seems improbable, though I suppose no more so than a world without magic."
He would find that there were a lot of impossible things in this place, and the arrival of it was literally only just the beginning. (She thinks, this might actually be good for him. In some way.)
... and of course he got rid of the soul gem.
She pinched him.
"Used to be lanterns," she told him, pointing to one of the red and gold ones hanging from a nearby rooftop. "Like those. Shepherd Book wouldn't like it at all, something so big into something so small. What did you do with it?"
Simon grimaced a little when she pinched him, but he accepted it- it was looking increasingly likely that he'd earned it, after all.
"So it's true? Our souls are put into another container when we arrive here?" He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "But why?" He then looked back at River. "I set it down by a market stall. The crystal was purple..."
"Elves," Simon repeated quietly. "I would never have in my entire life thought I'd be entertaining the idea that they were real. But... it seems I'll be having to accept things that I'd thought were impossible, right?"
He nodded.
"It does," he agreed. "But as far as we know, there have been no other sentient species. Of course, that was the official version presented by the government, and it happened so long ago, who knows if it is true? They may well be just outside of where we've explored already."
"You're taking it better than many people do," Raine remarked, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Yes, you will find yourself having to accept more things that you previously thought were impossible."
She glanced him over once more and nodded to herself, satisfied that he would be fine. "There may simply be more worlds to explore, yes," she agreed. "At the very least, it would be difficult to conclusively prove the absence of other sentients." Her little smile turned a bit wry at the last.
"I can show you to the Guild, or to the Midnight Hotel, if you like."
"I have found that panic is never a useful emotion in such situations," Simon smiled. "And, being a surgeon, I'm used to having proverbial nerves of steel. I have to control my emotions to some degree in the operating room."
He nodded. "I would appreciate that- and you're right, we still cannot prove there is nothing out there. We just need to find it, or them to find us."
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tushanshu_ooc2015-12-22 01:42 am
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