Test Drive Meme | #47

[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... 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!

Comments

5; Wait, you want my what?!

[simulsimul]

[New experiences, for Kratos, are not a common occurrence. He's been hoping lately to have more of them than he's had lately (and isn't that hope a new experience in itself?) Being in a crowd who is very interested in him is one he's not sure he wants.

[They seem to be interested in everything about him, too. His clothes, his hair, his sword, his shield, his facial expression ... apparently. Copying it, at least. Some of them are more interested in the contents of his pockets and beltpouches than he could wish.]

I'm not interested in selling.

[He says it over and over again, maneuvering toward the end of the market street -- or trying -- and mostly managing it, if only by dint of being able to forcibly, if gently, move the people in his way out of his way.

[Up until he's distracted by one person insisting that they honestly, truly, have something worth the exchange of his sword -- and someone else lifts Anna's locket from his belt. Kratos almost doesn't notice, except the chain clinks where some of the links have bent, and he knows that sound; too dim for an ordinary human's hearing. But not for his. His head jerks around, his demeanour shifting from stoic exasperation to targeted outrage in an instant.]

Stop!

[He sees startled culprit for a heartbeat before they duck into the crowd, and this time he's slightly less gentle to the people around him as he follows.]

[annihilist]

5. Devin is generally quite good at moving through crowds unnoticed - it's a well-honed skill - but this place is new enough that he not only sticks out (in some cases literally, as he's quite tall) but doesn't know the ebbs and flows of the streets. He catches someone's attention before long. Or rather, his dagger does.

As someone brushes against him, Devin catches the attempt to lift it off his person, and grabs the person tightly above the elbow. "If you want to keep that hand-," he says pleasantly, but it has a warning edge to it, "-don't."

10. Well, this is about as undesirable as ever. But every city had certain similarities, and one of those is having a black market. Surely someone is willing to part with some of their blood for the right price? Being a vampire has it's awkward aspects. Devin is currently stalking the streets as the sun goes down, searching for the all too familiar signs that something illicit is going on, occasionally asking furtively where one can find a place that is rather lenient on things like laws.

"I'm looking for someplace... eccentric. Willing to press boundaries," Devin says nebulously to a random bystander.

Narsus - Heroic Legend of Arslan

[karde]

5.
Narsus had arrived with little. Himself, a weapon, his clothes, and a little kit of art supplies that he kept hidden up his sleeve. Not literally, although Daryun would believe that Narsus' sleeves might allow for such concealment, but close on his person. Those supplies weren't much - brushes for the most part, and little canisters of basic pigments - but they were effective for travel.

He had managed to find abandoned wood to use as a canvas, against all odds, and a little purchase had found him a good, slick substance to mix the pigmentation with. A good perch on the street allowed for him to paint, and for some time, Narsus found himself absorbed in his art. The city sounds, the stares, the novelness of it all, nothing filtered in. There was only himself, his brush, and the paint.

Cityscapes like this were new to him. But it was a pleasant surprise that when Narsus pulled his head out of his art bubble, there were people asking what he might want for such a fine piece. It was with a smile that Narsus asked, "Well, what's the usual price for these things?" while noting that he'd need to brag about this to Daryun eventually. When was the last time any of their associates were this eager about one of Narsus' paintings?

9.
The shadow was what got Narsus' attention. It was far bigger than anything he had ever seen before, and that garnered a glance up. seeing what was causing the shadow, he could simply stare. The creature was unlike anything he had seen in Pars, or read about in any books, or imagined in any dream. A giant winged reptile, and even from his pitiful vantage point, there was no mistaking the circling behavior as anything but predatory.

Another flap of wings, and Narsus could see that the thing - he needed a name for it, he couldn't just call it a thing - start to go for the center of the street. His own sword was out in a flash, heavy boots thundering down on the pavement, fighting against the flow of the crowd. There was no question that this thing was dangerous, and no doubt in his mind that it should not be allowed to rejoin the air.

[reluctantaccessory]

[Wildcard??? Let's just see what happens]

Marie could liken, once she was able to ignore the obvious differences, the market to any of the dozens she had spent long hours shopping at in the past. The vendors weren't much different in their behaviors. Some were pushy and willing to rip off the innocent or uninformed with broken bits of junk or random mixes of herbs that did nothing but make one's skin peel or make it itch like poison oak would. Others were much more pleasant to deal with.

The smells mixed with the sounds of children or adults shouting the names of items and prices (or what she believed were those things - the language end of things was still a bit tricky sometimes, though she was lucky that she wasn't entirely without help on a good day). But, she understood this type of life. It was simple. You woke up, you did the daily shopping, you went home and put things away before going to work (or you didn't - there was a long period where she instead "goofed off" after her daily chores and work was not an option), and perhaps picked up a few things on the way home or just took a long walk before going home. Perhaps tonight she would stop by one of the many food stalls, she was woefully behind on trying the local cuisine.

Of course, there were a number of things that she had made mental notes to avoid. Most of those things looked plenty alive when served on plates. Other things smelt "funny" even disgusting enough to make her cast iron stomach turn. There were also a handful of items that she had made similar notes about. The only thing she wished she could figure out how to avoid entirely were the locals who always found a way to flock around her and root through her pockets and bag when she had begun to let her guard slip some.

Though, it was not as much of a shock to her as it was to others, she had been "attacked" more than once in her own world in a like way. It usually took a few sharp words, sometimes a couple of threats from the "scary one" that had been guarding from a distance, and other times she had to give in and let something of her own go to appease the group. It always ended up depending on a few things.

The young woman sighed contently and flipped some of her long blonde hair behind her tattooed shoulder as she kept wandering carrying her now battered blue bag. She had some time to kill, her shopping hadn't taken nearly as long as it would have a short time ago. Or perhaps she just got lucky and didn't need much today. She herself roll her shoulders a few times as they got stiff and she allowed a very bright, though close lipped smile to form.

"Well, this could be worse."