Test Drive Meme | #50

[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

[bostonhowler]

Brigid just raises her eyebrows at the girl across from her. It's her disapproving school teacher look. She waits to see if the other woman will throw the soul-gem. Not a good idea.

"I wouldn't, were I you. Spend three days away from it and you die." Not a pleasant prospect. "I'm not sure if that would be permanent or not." Because death? Supposedly not permanent. Not something that Brigid has personally tested out.

"And whether you buy it or not, it's real. Though Twilight was horrible." The woman got werewolves all wrong.

[wolfishflame]

She's used to that look, and coolly returns the stare. That's a look she's well used to, though the bearer is usually furry. Still, she doesn't throw the gem, but she doesn't put it back on, either. "Yeah, well. I've died before. It's not so bad." Liar. It sucks. The scar encircling her neck like a choker aches at the lie. That's just what happens when you let a faerie assassin sneak up on you. Ya get beheaded.

"Ugh, God, right? Complete garbage." Complete garbage that she'd hate-read through the final book, but still.

[bostonhowler]

Brigid sighs. "Die or not, it's not a pleasant way to go, if what I've heard is correct." She doesn't know it's true, but she's not going to tempt fate. Not when there's other things to worry about.

"There are places to stay while here, though. And a variety of jobs." She shrugs. "The shelter is looking for someone to help with paperwork."

[wolfishflame]

That last part startles a surprised little giggle out of her. "Paperwork? You've got to be kidding me." Some things were dimensional constants, she guesses.

"Hmm. Maybe I won't test it." She closes her hand around the ring. "But how do I know this isn't a trap? It positively stinks of a trap."

[bostonhowler]

Yes, well, Brigid had had her suspicions too - still did about a few things. She doesn't trust the peace around the shelter, and doesn't trust that Sonja will keep her mouth shut about certain things.

"Paperwork. It's what I was doing." Brigid admits. But now she's got to find something else. It's okay. She's smart. She can do just about anything.

"I don't think it's a trap, but it's not nearly as benevolent as it may seem." She doesn't know how to explain it. "The kedanese are somewhat unwilling to like us in certain instances. And that means living and knowing it's not going to be nice."

[wolfishflame]

"It seems about as benevolent as a pack of velociraptors. Like the movie kind, not the chicken-sized real kind." Aly narrows her eyes at the woman. "You're drinking their tea. How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Seems like a nonsequitur. To Aly, it isn't.

[bostonhowler]

She blinks and looks at her tea. "And why shouldn't I be drinking the tea?" She doesn't smell anything out of the ordinary. It's just tea.

"A girl's got to eat?" She says, wondering why the other girl is so put off by her drinking tea.

"There's people to corroborate my story, if you want to meet them." Brigid offers. "Zatanna might be on duty at the welcome center, and she can explain everything much better than I can."

[wolfishflame]

"You say you're here against your will, and yet you eat their food and drink their tea." She raises an eyebrow. "I don't think it's so much against your will anymore - that is, if you're like me at all, and not some fae putting on a show." She practically spits the word. The woman hadn't had a bad reaction to her mace; faeries usually sensed the cold iron core and skirted clear of it. But this place was weird, and rules seemed to have gone out the window.

She will go on a hunger strike if she has to.

[bostonhowler]

Brigid sips her tea, and then nearly spits it out. Fae? This woman thinks her fae?!

"Boston Irish Catholic I may be, but fae I am not." She practically growls the words. It takes her a moment to realize that her eyes are not glowing blue. That's a good thing. The last thing she needs is to out herself to someone new.

[wolfishflame]

"Prove it."

Thunk. Aly's unhooked her mace from her belt and laid it on the table. It's copper on the outside, cold iron underneath. No fae could touch it, even through fabric, without being harmed.

At least, none that she knows of.

"Touch it and show me your hand, and maybe I'll think about believing you."

[bostonhowler]

Brigid wrinkles her nose at the weapon. So crass, humans. She's glad that werewolves have no need for such barbaric methods.

She reaches out and picks up the mace with one hand, then puts it back down and shows the other woman her completely uninjured hand. "Satisfied?"

[wolfishflame]

To be fair, Aly doesn't need it. It just makes her life easier.

"Hmm." Aly scrutinizes her. "Okay. So you're not one of them." Probably. "What's to say it's not the food keeping you here?"

[bostonhowler]

"Because people who are smarter than I am about such things and have been here longer, know the spell that was cast and the person who cast it." She shrugs. "Believe what you want. This place is between Life, the Dreaming and Death."

She thinks that's how it goes, anyway. It's been a while since she got the welcome speech. And she's never given one. "Would you like to maybe speak to Zatanna? She's been here far longer than I, and she's magically inclined."

[wolfishflame]

"'Life, the Dreaming, and Death'?" Aly echoes, taking her mace off the table and hooking it back on her belt. "That doesn't sound legit. There's two worlds. There's the Waking, where I'm from, and the Otherside, where this has got to be, because I'm still dressed straight Skyrim." She shakes herself angrily.

"This is ri-god-damn-diculous," she mutters to herself.

[bostonhowler]

"Do you mind?" She asks. "I don't mind swearing, but there are limits." She's Catholic. It's practically a sin to hear someone swear.

Don't test her.

"As for Skyrim, you show up here dressed as you were when you were taken from your home." Brigid tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "I can't explain why."

[wolfishflame]

Aly squints at her, but tries to quiet her potty mouth. Soren had never said anything about it, but Soren was shy. And maybe French Catholics were different...?

The French were all weird from an American standpoint, anyway; Aly had needed to politely turn down a glass of wine from his parents at dinner when she'd gone to study at his house.

"...magnificent. Glad I wasn't stepping out of the shower, then." She closes her eyes. "And at least I'm not defenseless." Then she sighs. "Aaaaand at least I wasn't taking a trig test this time."

That one's a Story.

[bostonhowler]

She's Boston Irish Catholic. They're either ultra religious, or lapsed. Guess which one Brigid falls into?

"There are others who explain this a lot better than I am." She sighs. "I can take you to the turtle's head, if that would make this all easier to believe?" Oh yeah, back of a giant turtle. She might have forgotten to mention that.

[wolfishflame]

"Sure. I'll go take a look-see." She shrugs. "At least it'll help me figure out what I'm dealing with."

[bostonhowler]

Brigid pushes herself up from the table, and leads the way toward the turtle's head. She's not sure what the other woman is going to think about the whole 'living on a moving turtle' thing, but that's not really a problem she can help with. If the smell of the sea didn't permeate most of the island, she wouldn't believe it either.

The sense of peace gets stronger, the closer they get. Brigid stops and takes in a deep breath, ignoring the Ban Om members. "The turtle's head." She says. "The people are members of a religion, don't mind them."

[wolfishflame]

Aly doesn't like the sense of peace that quietly steals into her head. It feels too much like a glamour, like a violation. She folds her arms and looks out over the sea, taking an instinctive step back. Flames don't like water. Even when she's her normal self, she's always been terrified of drowning.

"They don't bother me, I won't bother them," she says. Man. She'd been really hoping it'd be a land turtle. Not a sea turtle. (Tortoise. That's what a land turtle is. Whatever.) Being surrounded by all this water makes her itchy, which pushes back the artificial feeling of peace in her head. Good. She doesn't like it.

"What's with this?" she asks, and knocks on her head.

[bostonhowler]

The Ban Om people pretty much ignore them, obviously recognizing this is someone new to the turtle.

"The sense of peace?" Brigid asks. It's the same feeling she gets when she prays, so it doesn't bother Brigid nearly as much.

"I don't know." She shrugs. "It's always been that way." Brigid folds her hands in front of her. "Tu Vishan offers a sense of peace, I guess? Everything else is so hectic, it's nice to find a place it isn't."

[wolfishflame]

"...I don't like it," Aly says, and shivers. "I don't like things that mess with my head. Benevolent or not." Hell, even the land spirit never did anything like that.

That makes her think. "Is Tu Vishan the land spirit around here?"

[bostonhowler]

Brigid cocks her head to the side, watching the young woman standing next to her. She doesn't seem to like a lot of things around here. Not that Brigid can blame her. When she was new, Brigid didn't like anything either.

But now she has Jackie, and had the shelter, and... yeah. "Tu Vishan is the turtle. I think." Brigid doesn't pay much attention to it, really.

[wolfishflame]

Aly's going to like or at least tolerate some things here. She's just being a suspicious dick right now, though.

"And it likes to make people feel all happy happy joy joy." Her voice is flat. "So much so that there's those guys just kind of...hanging out over there."

[bostonhowler]

Brigid follows Aly's line of sight. "They're... a religion of sort. I haven't spoken to them at all, so I don't know what it is, exactly, they're doing."

She sighs. "Honestly, I've been busy with the shelter since arriving, and then last month, there was a hiccup." That's one way to put it. People finding out about her being a wolf... is not a hiccup.