Test Drive Meme | #43

[ironwood]

TEST DRIVE MEME - TU SHANSHU EDITION!

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 starts out as wishful thinking becomes lured into reality. That slick new motorcycle or pile of kingly treasure you were just daydreaming about? Surprise! It's just appeared in front of you. 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. Maybe you haven't been hired by them at all, but are using their name for your own goals... as long as no one discovers the lie! Wait... you want my what now?! The kedan are a curious folk, and the Foreigners are entertainment in conveniently arriving packages, especially when they come along with unique items that the kedan might not have seen before. Maybe it's your cellphone... or maybe it's your knickers! How badly do you want to keep your stuff from some overeager native shapeshifters who want to buy, bribe, or burglarize it right off your person? Sea prunes, get your sea prunes right here! Life in Keeliai can take a little getting used to: the chickens have scales, the cows have feathers, and the fruits come in more colour and pattern combinations than your average tye-dye shirt. Not to mention that meal you just ordered from the food vendor? Has arrived on the plate, and you're pretty sure you just saw it move. Everybody needs a little darkness... The Great Enemy may have been defeated over two years ago, and people are even willing to speak Malicant's name aloud now, but there remains a taint in the city never fully purged. Those who consider Malicant a dark god whose end was unjust are the cultists of Keeliai, and they aren't always so easy to identify as one might think. Sometimes their presence is felt in the growing urge to give into one's darker instincts, especially in such a foreign place... Illicit substances, anyone? Every city has its vices, and Keeliai is no different. Perhaps you actively sought it out, or perhaps an opportunistic dealer saw you as a potential customer needing a free sample, but you're now in possession of a packet of Lucid, an emotion-enhancing drug. Interested in finding out what happens when you crush that colourful crystal and ingest it? Incoming! Tu Vishan's latest landfall stop has brought an unwelcome problem to its residents: enormous, toothy creatures who look more like pterosaurs than most people are comfortable with! With a twenty-foot wingspan, these aren't exactly harmless local wildlife, and they have a nasty habit of swooping down on targets both Foreigner and kedan! How are you going to fend them off, or help someone who might have been injured by the latest dive bombing?? (Please note: This scenario isn't applicable to becoming game canon if you choose to app your character, as an alien pterosaur attack is a major event.) 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 uncontrollable urge to polish every paving stone in the Earth Sector? Anything goes!

Comments

Alex Conklin | The Bourne Series (novels) | three guesses who this is, first two don't count

[saintoflangley]

2. Can you not?

Conklin has no idea what he'd done to deserve this.

Actually, he does, but not specifically. Thirty-some years in grey-to-black operations sure puts a lot of red in your ledger.

He can deal with one child. He can, on occasion, deal with two, but only if someone more experienced with children is around because he makes one hell of a bad babysitter.

He's dealt with the street urchins throughout southeast Asia, in Saigon during the bad old days, and he knows the 'swarm of adorable pickpockets' strategy. He is not, however, used to them being so damn fascinated with his cane and damnable boot!

"No, you may not look at it. Go away."

They giggle and press in closer, drawing more kids their age, one crouching down to get a better look at his prosthetic foot.

5. No but seriously Can You Not

Sure, so a guy limping through the city - a new Foreigner - looks like a soft target. And Conklin isn't unused to being tailed, but his erstwhile tails had been more experienced than mere petty thieves.

Or just the one, in this case. Why send two people after an old man with a cane who can't even walk right?

Conklin turns down an alley, the thief follows him, and halfway down Alex turns on his good foot, plants his cane in front of him, and smiles.

"I'd advise you to reconsider," he says evenly. "Your current plan of action's pretty ill-advised, friend."

[Dealer's Choice]

There's a new Foreigner in town. An older man - about sixty - with greying brown hair, a face prematurely lined by stress, and - most noticeably - a pronounced limp. The cane makes the limp steadier, while the still-awkward gait is courtesy of a late-eighties prosthesis.

What.....do you do?

5

[spoilsfun]

When Conan sees a man with a cane being followed into an alley, it didn't take a detective of his skill to guess what was about to happen. Sticking close to the alley walls, he follows after them while talking full advantage of being light enough to have very quiet footsteps.

And then when they come to a stop, he steps out directly behind the prospective thief and makes a loud remark.

"It isn't nice to steal things from people, you know."

[saintoflangley]

The voice came from pretty low down, and was high-pitched enough for Conklin's brain to stop just for a moment - Jesus, a kid! What did he think he was doing?! - but the kid's arrival seemed to distract the would-be thief even more. He half-turned, and that was all the opening the retired spook needed.

Nobody ever expects to get their feet swept out from under them by a guy with a limp and a cane. But then it happens and you feel like a damn fool. Sweep the leg, Alex! No, not that one.

Once the wannabe thief hits the ground, Conklin plants his boot - his very obvious prosthetic foot - on the small of the kedan's back, and smirks. "Naughty, naughty. Didn't your mother ever teach you to respect your elders?"

Then he looks at the kid. Christ, he can't be much older than Jamie, David's son, who he'd give his life to protect - and nearly had. "What d'you think you're doing, following a thief into an alleyway?"

[spoilsfun]

"He was acting suspicious. I was curious."

Conan delivers the line blandly, without showing any hint of remorse.

"But that was done really well! Do you have a lot of practice doing this kind of thing?"

[saintoflangley]

The black belt - in the days before a land mine cut his career as a field man tragically short - laughs a little. "You could say that." Thinking someone defenseless due to a mobility issue was really rather stupid on the thief's part, Conklin muses. People adjust.

Speaking of which...he lets the thief up, and the kedan gets to his hands and knees, groaning. "Scram," Conklin says, giving the thief a not-so-light tap in the behind with said prosthetic foot, and the kedan wastes no time in getting out of there. He's obviously outclassed.

There's something off about the kid, though. Conklin files that gut feeling in his mental Rolodex of Hate and studies the boy. "Got a name, o curious one?"

[spoilsfun]

Conan had noticed his leg immediately, of course. But Conan knew better than to ever think anyone defenseless for a disability. More often, he'd seen people using disabilities to fool people into thinking them harmless.

"Conan Edogawa. I'm an elementary school detective from Japan."

dealer's choice;

[whipcracks]

Jane's known plenty of people with limps, it came with the territory: mining accidents, animal related injuries, war wounds. Sometimes, just pesky old bad luck. No matter what the cause, it's not pleasant, and it's not convenient.

Jane's known plenty of people with limps, it came with the territory: mining accidents, animal related injuries, war wounds. Sometimes, just pesky old bad luck. No matter what the cause, it's not pleasant, and it's not convenient. (Joe reminds her, almost daily, that old injuries can make even easy jobs a challenge -- usually right around the time there's work to be done.)

So when there's only one table left at the outdoor cafe, and they were both heading for it until each noticed the other, the redheaded woman inclines her head and gestures to the seating.

Her accent is a distinct western tang, but there is an underlying Georgian flavour there. "You look like you'd do better with a sit down," she said.

[saintoflangley]

Normally - normally - he'd be grumpy at anyone assuming he'd need special accommodation for his age and his limp (unless, of course, he was exploiting it), but there's something about her that gives him pause from immediately snarking. She looks so much like Marie - granted, a younger Marie than he or David had ever known, and maybe it was just the hair, because she doesn't sound a thing like the French-Canadian economist - and maybe it's just age making him sentimental, but any reminder of home, no matter how slim, is welcome.

"No law that says we can't share," he says with a smile. His own accent's a carefully cultivated generic East Coast American, no trace of the Russian of Brighton Beach he'd grown up with.

[whipcracks]

Jane smiled, nodding her agreement to the offer, and pulled out the chair across from him. "Seems like a busy place," she said, nodding at the bustling cafe. "Reckon they serve a better brew than trail coffee, that's for sure. Ever had it?"

[saintoflangley]

"Never tried trail coffee, but it sounds like a relative of some of the nastier brews I've had." Hey, if it had caffeine in it, he'd drink it, especially back in Vietnam. Alertness was key.

[whipcracks]

"Pretty much as it sounds, put coffee in an old can and put it on the fire. Joe likes to stir his with the end of a pick axe... I keep telling him the day he can stir it with a spoon, it'll be time to get a new can."

2

[consultingbishop]

There'll be a loud whistle from behind you, Alex, one that draws the attention of the urchins.

And it most definitely will, as there's a small pile of juulan in the middle of the road. All unattended.

[saintoflangley]

Free money beats out harassing a Foreigner any day of the week, and while a couple of them are wary of a trap, they're swept up in the wave of their buddies scrambling to be the first to the pile.

"Nice one," Conklin says, leaning on his cane as the other man approaches. "Sure you can part with that much?"

[consultingbishop]

Peter steps out from the alley, walking towards the harrassed foreigner, a slight smile on his face.

"It's fake. No self-respecting merchant would take it." Peter then nods down the road. "I suggest we move before they find out."

[saintoflangley]

Rolodex: this guy carries significant amounts of counterfeit juulan, or at least has access to it. Good to know.

"Lead on." The former field man inclines his head.

[consultingbishop]

There's the briefest of pauses in Peter's movements and Alex will likely clock that he's looking him up and down, before he shifts and moves.

"How long you been here? Got a place to stay set up, or are they literally harrassing you off the boat?"

2.

[celticromanstone]

"Alright, that's enough." Heather claps her hands together and scatters the children. "Go on, the lot of you." She shoos them away, with an imperious gesture. She's usually good for a sweet or three, so most of them, all but the very youngest, a three year old little girl, scatter to the winds. "You too."

The little girl holds out the hand not in her mouth.

"No sweet today. Come back tomorrow." Heather says, shooing the little girl away. She looks at the older man, sizing him up. "Well, darling, now that I've rescued you, what say you to a drink?"

[saintoflangley]

There's a lot to be said for people who are good with kids. Alex is not.

Once the crowd of urchins has dispersed, he looks at his savior, sizing her up in the same way. And literally nobody has called him 'darling' in...thirty years? Thirty years. Comes from being married to your work, and all.

"It would be churlish of me to refuse," he says with a smile. He'll cross the not-actually-drinking-alcohol bridge when they come to it.

[celticromanstone]

Heather smiles. She wonders if he'd be amenable to a bit of fun later. "You're new here, aren't you?" She asks, waving for him to follow her. Heather isn't in the mood for alcohol this early in the day, either, but there's a very nice juice bar close by.

That should do nicely, don't you think?

[saintoflangley]

He'll flirt with you until the cows come home. It's fun.

"Just off the boat, as it were," he says, limping along. "Two days." Two. Ridiculous. Days.

[celticromanstone]

"Hmm." She says, eyeing him critically. There are a great many things she could say about that limp, but she has more tact than that. It can wait until they at least know each other's names.

"Well, have a seat darling." She says, sliding into a seat herself. "Now, have you found a place to stay and all that fun stuff?" She asks, bracing her chin on her hand.

2! please forgive me my Mo is so rusty

[pandapanov]

Mo is still trying to get used to this place - he's still not really sure where he is and that can absolutely never be good - and wandering the streets may not be the smartest idea. But it's also a good way to observe people.

A small crowd of children is always enough to attract a little attention, but this one of particular interest because of who is standing in the middle of it.

"And here I thought you didn't like kids, Alex," Mo Panov says with a grin as he approaches the spook and his gaggle of followers.

YOU ARE MY LITERAL FAVORITE RN

[saintoflangley]

"Don't test me, coach," Alex says with a smile. "Can't you just use some of your crazy shrink magic on them for a minute, or are you just going to let me suffer?"

I will try not to fail you, I'm flying so blind

[pandapanov]

"How many times do I have to tell you it's not magic?"

There is something highly amusing about Alex Conklin being overcome by kids, but Mo takes pity on him after a few more moments to just savor the image. He comes to a half-crouch so he's more at eye-level with the kids.

"Who wants to see Alex use his fake foot?" Mo asks the gathered children, winking up at Conklin.

It is perfect and you are perfect

[saintoflangley]

"...why are you like this?" Alex asks. Yes, he knows you were tormenting him on purpose. And for this you will later pay. His wrath is dark and terrible.