tushanshu_ooc | Test Drive Meme

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Test Drive Meme | #47

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...
Let's play cops and robbers!
Local law enforcement is handled by the Keeliai Police Department, an organization of both Foreigners and kedan dedicated to keeping the peace in the turtle... and they're about to make a raid on a large, illegal gambling ring! Are you going to collar the nearest bad guy, or are you one of the high rollers now looking to make a quick escape? Or a bookie who's now getting booked downtown?
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!

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Ah, violence. That's adorable.

It's not about him, but Melek ambles over anyway, just to see what's happening, and takes a moment to consider the scene. Pickpocket versus -- well, someone lacking a heartbeat, which has upped his interest significantly. "That sounds like a promise," he says, leaning far too closely into the tall man's personal space to peer at the hand that might be getting lost. "Is it?"

Devin peers at the newcomer curiously, and doesn't let go of the would-be thief despite the fact that he's started to struggle in the vampire's grip. The apparent lack of respect for personal space is interesting in it's own right, albeit unwelcome.

"I'm assuming you don't understand the difference between a promise and a threat," he answers after a moment. "However, I can demonstrate if you don't leave me to my business."

[Then at least Kratos and Lloyd had that much time, to talk to each other. It will hardly make up for the years intervening, but...]

[It's something. Raine can't discount the value of even a little time.]

I see.

...A few weeks isn't the greatest misalignment. There have been people here some years removed from each other.

[It's a little strange that it's Kratos, of everyone, but at least he's from a point where Raine can be sure of him.]

Do you ever plan to return? Can you?

"Aren't they the same thing?" Melek wonders aloud. He leans in a little bit more, to be contrary, though he's not obstructing Devin's ripping arm. By all means, demonstrate. "A threat doesn't mean much if you won't back it up, I've always thought. Makes it more like a gentle suggestion. So you promise violence, and keep your word if conditions aren't met." He sounds nonchalantly pleased with himself about this one.

The thief continues to try and wriggle away, and has started to look between the two other men with fear in his eyes. He's also long since let go of Devin's dagger. The vampire sighs and releases the thief, smacking him on the back of the head as he flees. "Go, learn something instead of stealing," Devin calls after him.

And then he turns to the newcomer, who still won't get out of his space and in fact has gotten closer. "Threats become promises when acted upon. Sometimes threats are enough on their own to produce a desired response. Case in point - he still has a hand, I still have my property, and he'll think twice before trying again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to be anywhere but here," Devin says, bowing slightly as he takes a step back and hopes the stranger won't follow him.

That'll work. Tall dark and handsome's an optimist, apparently.

"You don't make a promise only when you're keeping it," Melek points out. Arguing semantics suddenly seems like the funnest thing in the world, absent the opportunity for bloodshed and mayhem. "You make it and then you keep it. It's a declaration of intent. Unless you wouldn't have ripped his hand off?"

Something about Melek shifts. His eyes are sharper, perhaps. "Were you bluffing?" he wonders aloud, sounding for all the world like he's only idly curious though his demeanor is wrong for it.

The shriek of a badly wounded dragon was a terrible thing indeed. Kratos dulled his hearing a touch to take the edge off, and moved a bit faster now the crowd was thinning. In the distance overhead, he could feel the shift of mana which suggested the dragon might not be alone.

"Do you need help finishing that off?" he asked, voice slightly raised to be heard over the dragon's scrabbling. For all the words could be droll, his tone was entirely deadpan; and he didn't move to help, regardless.

Instead Kratos made for the wounded bystanders around the edges of the street, kneeling beside the nearest. Light spun around his feet once more, but the glow in his hand and sweeping across the kedan was green, and the kedan's wounds closed in almost the blink of an eye. "First Aid."

The vampire has never enjoyed being the subject of this kind of attention. This is getting moderately more annoying by the second, until something in the stranger's bearing shifts. Then things suddenly have taken on an edge that Devin likes even less.

"I keep my promises when I make them," Devin says evenly, continuing to walk as though he can somehow lose his shadow. "I don't always act on my threats. I had no reason to maim a complete stranger when a few words and strong grip would suffice."

Of course.

[This, with some trademark faint amusement, accompanied by a head-tip at the fact that Raine even feels the need to ask.]

Even in orbit, it would eventually circle close enough to Aselia to use the warp. But Mithos was piloting it directly -- we've taken back control, and can return at any time. We did manage to moor it to Aselia the first time, remember.

[The difficulty had been getting to Derris-Kharlan before it was too far away to retrieve; and that was why the situation had been slightly urgent. A few weeks had been the most Kratos could spare, even with the engines turned off after Mithos's defeat, even with that unique gravitational force of new mana which had very nearly brought it back to earth. Inertia existed even in space.]

Besides, I promised I'd bring him some minerals from other worlds.

[This is tacked on at the end, as if it's the most important reason for him to return at all, and not just because Aselia is his home.]

"You're missing the point," says Melek, and he falls into step with Devin, smiling with inappropriate sharpness. He's almost of a height with the no-heartbeat man, but slighter, and his posture is angled, off-kilter. And he's still definitely inside Devin's personal space. "A threat's an if-then promise. If someone does this, then you murder them horribly, see? Rip a hand off, whichever. It's in the intent. If you don't intend to follow though..."

He shrugs. The movement is liquid, and oddly disjointed for a second or two. "Then it's just bluffing. So. Were you bluffing?"

Edited 2016-12-06 11:06 (UTC)

"I wouldn't say no!" was Narsus' response, his voice matching Kratos' for volume. For all of the good that destroying the dragon's wing did, the creature was now flailing and thrashing about in a way that would cause more destruction of property if it wasn't taken care of quickly.

His shadow reminds Devin vaguely of a marionette - his movements are strange, more angular than they ought to be and yet still fluid, but in an unnerving sort of way. That perturbs him somewhat less than the fact that he's still being followed and pestered, but presenting as aggravated would probably only encourage the stranger. Devin can be patient.

"I haven't missed anything; I simply choose not to take your point. There's a difference," he offers more pleasantly than before. "Why are you so interested in whether or not I'm willing to sever limbs in the middle of the street?"

"I'm alone in a strange world, and I'm bored." Melek steps away only for a moment, so he can fling his hands dramatically wide; next thing he's back in Devin's personal space, if on the other side. "If you're willing to go that far, then you're interesting. I'm interested by people who don't make empty threats."

They're more challenging.

There's conflicting logic here. On the one hand, Devin would appreciate being left to himself and appearing uninteresting might be enough to shake his hanger-on. On the other, lying could land him in a situation he liked even less than this and the other man appears to be persistent enough to push through a lie for the sake of entertainment.

"I'm capable of it, in the right circumstances," he allows after a moment, giving Melek a narrow look. "At most, I would have broken a few bones; thievery doesn't earn the kind of punishments I typically mete out."

So technically the answer was both; he was bluffing, after a fashion, but Devin would and could do it if he chose to.

The kedan finally seemed to decide on an offer, and the price given was fairly generous for a painting of that size. Foreigner-made creations, it seemed, ran at a premium in the city.

Elsa laughed a little, almost more to herself than to Narsus. "That's something we can all hope for, isn't it? Is this your trade, where you're from?"

"Not at all," was the reply, Narsus beaming with pleasant surprise that the painting had sold so quickly. Never mind the extra income. If there was genuine demand, then perhaps--

"But I might consider making it so here, if my stay is to be a long one."

Oh, that's a promising look. Melek isn't sure what it's promising yet, mind, but there's promise. Much better than bluffing.

"Tell me about the right circumstances," Melek says, with what a human would probably consider an inappropriate amount of cheer for the promise of rampant violence. "You're the type of person who metes out punishments on the regular? Now I'm even more curious." Closer, now, it's easier to see there's very little white in Melek's eyes.

Devin has long since figured out that this man is not normal by any stretch. There's something unpleasantly familiar about him, but he can't quite pin it down. The so-called Foreigners were a rag-tag bunch, all very different.

Out of an abundance of caution, he takes a moment to open his hearing. There's a heartbeat there but-- very slow. Too slow for comfort, too slow for a human. At least, too slow for any human he's ever met.

"If I'm being attacked," he answers, his tone measured. "Or if the target is of my own race. The latter especially earns a death sentence by default," he explains with far too much ease, his mouth thinning with suspicion.

[Raine supposes that may be obvious in retrospect, given Lloyd.]

That's true.

--you did? I'm sure he'll appreciate that.

[She has to suppress a laugh, because it is such a deeply Lloyd thing. Something practical, which gives his father an even better reason to return. And Raine will admit she's curious as well.]

...It sounds like things will be all right. That's a relief, even if I'm liable to forget the reassurance.

He promised to forge me a new sword with them.

[Since Kratos had given him Flamberge, and all. Kratos could use other swords, of course; but Flamberge had also been forged of a metal from space. The thought of such equipment becoming a family trait is oddly pleasing, especially if forged within the family.]

It will continue to be a reassurance up until that point.

[Sometimes, the end makes the time before it all the more precious. That thought does make Kratos look at Raine sidelong, eyeing the ring on her finger, and wonder; but the child calls out before them, standing on the stoop of a door.]

In 'ere.

"Ah, a rainbow drinker then. Or- you call them 'vampires', right? It's still strange to me that humans only have the one blood color." It was an interesting thought experiment for her, if every troll had Kankri's mutant blood. Would it solve the hemospectrum problems? Would the loss of diversity really be worth it?

"But that's off-topic. You're a foreigner, yes? Do you know if you can consume Kedan blood or not?"

Rainbow drinker? Devin wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but this woman was entirely strange. "Technically, they have blood in two colors - oxygenated and not. One is quite darker than the other, and appears blue under the skin. And yes, vampires."

He glanced around them, mostly out of habit and situational awareness, and then nodded. "I am indeed one of the Foreigners, much to my displeasure. I haven't yet had a chance to explore the possibility of the kedan, but given how humanoid they are I would imagine their blood would do. I would still need to find someone willing in order to try."

"I stand corrected," Porrim said, jovially. Dude knew his blood. Interesting thing though - "You say 'they'. Do you not consider yourself human any longer?"

"They may have two legs and two arms, but from what I've been led to believe Kedan have more in common with lizards than with humans. Even so, I think you might be going about this the wrong way."

"I was never human to begin with, so there's not an 'any longer' to consider," Devin returned easily.

Let her make of that what she would. He sat down opposite her with a laid back sort of grace, but he wasn't relaxed. Not really, not matter how much it looked like he was.

"There's only one way to find out, I suppose. What would you suggest I do? I refuse to assault anyone, and if I don't meet certain requirements I will become a problem."

She furrowed her brow in a mix of annoyance and derision.

"If 'assault someone' is what you got from that, I obviously need to speak more plainly." She had to question what kind of people he was hanging out with that he felt the need to assert that. Still, she was glad he was against it.

"I meant that we have a private-ish network with a rather significant support system in place for foreigners. Being upfront about your specific needs will get you a lot more than trying to be subtle about it. In fact, Zatanna at the welcome center seems to be pretty well-versed in this kind of thing."

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Test Drive Meme | #47

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oh goodie

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(whoops life ate me, sorry)

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