Test Drive Meme

[crux_mods]

Did you want to test your characters? Do you want something that you can use for an RP sample without digging up an old thread? Well, here you have it. Pick one or multiple prompts below or, if you want, make a prompt of your own. Just be sure to tag around so that everyone gets plenty of exposure.

1: Explosions in space! Space Bandits attacked the space colony everyone was visiting! Dozens of fighters and mobile armors fly through space, locked in deadly combat. Are you among those battling to save lives? Or are you watching from the windows, praying everything will be safe?

2: Explosions underground! You were part of a trading party, exchanging supplies with an underground penal colony when alien animals burrowed through the walls and started assaulting convict and Confederation member alike! What are you going to do?

3: Explosions over the city! The Colosseum is shooting off fireworks as part of a concert or a sporting event! Are you watching in the crowd, a main attraction, or watching the bright colors from the city?

4: Explosions on an asteroid! You're either observing, guarding, or mining an asteroid! It's rather dull, save for the explosions that rock the ground under your feet. It looks like it'll continue to be just as slow, but... was that something moving in the shadows there?

5: Explosions on a space station! As you approached a research station, you receive a distress signal! Fire's broken out and their systems aren't up to spec! Can you do anything? Are you a part of a scouting crew or out for a joyride in your new yacht? And is this an accident, or something more sinister?

6: Explosions at the gym! Explosive competition! Swimming, weightlifting, running, boxing, someone has just challenged you! Whether they know it or not, you're going to do your best to show them up.

7: Explosions in the past! A star has died! The Fleet is flying through the nebula it left behind, with swirls of beauty as far as the eye can see. If you're the type, you can watch it all you like.

8: Explosions on the road! Most of the traffic on the Teuberg is computer controlled, but some young showoff took his off the grid and promptly caused a wreck! Traffic has been backed up for almost half an hour now, with no way out for you and the people in your vehicle. Are you close enough to see if anyone needs help? Or are you just stuck with people who are as late for their appointments as you are?

9: Explosions in the marketplace! Explosive bargains! You're in a trading hub, surrounded by stalls of all kinds selling every type of merchandise you can imagine! Luckily, you've got enough money to handle a few purchases here. Will you buy one of those daggers on display? An incense burner? Some alien fruit? Or maybe you're on the run from the corrupt guards? Or perhaps you're the one doing the chasing, did someone just steal your wallet?

10: Explosions in your mind! The explosive inspiration that drives this world! Make up your own prompt!

Comments

[senseandcecilbility]

[A laughter. A little broken, it is true, but still a laughter. If Shiroe is trying to dissociate himself from young master, he is doing a terrible job... though Kevin would have told him the truth if he asked:

A loved child is irreplaceable.]

My apologies. It does take getting used to.

[He raises the mug, being careful to keep his hand firm this time.]

Thank you. That was very kind.

[peterpanic]

[Wow see if he ever does a nice thing ever again!! Don't laugh!]

If you spill that one, you're on your own.

[A very serious threat. Shiroe puts his elbow on the table and his cheek in his hand, as if he's just bored rather than kind of uncomfortable.]

Get used to it soon. There are a lot of people here, and only so much cocoa to spill.

[senseandcecilbility]

[At least he is not laughing anymore, but merely smiling behind the cup, even if he can tell that Shiroe's threat is super serious.]

Understood, sir. That would be a veritable waste of cocoa.

...Have you found a place to stay?

[Parental concern 101: children should not sleep in spaceships hangars or alien laundry closets.]

[peterpanic]

[Incredibly serious, yes. The question leaves him a bit surprised; is he supposed to have found another place, besides--] Well, there are the rooms we were provided.

[A half-shrug. Quarters are quarters, as long as he has his pitiful belongings from home and no one around to catch him panicking in his sleep.]

I'm thinking of becoming a student here. [SHOCKING] So what's there is good enough, for now.

[senseandcecilbility]

[A warm room and school. It is not a bad start. He remembers having practically dragged Master Walker to the school bench after the young man had spent one year in Exsilium, and his entire life really, completely unaware of the need to properly educate himself. Perhaps children from the future are wiser about that than children from the past. Or perhaps it is just that Master Shiroe has once more revealed himself to have his philosophies aligned with young master's. Either way, school most likely means meeting people his age. Perhaps even make friends?

The boy seems lonely, he thinks. He could use some friends.]

Later you might wish to move in with others you feel affinity with. I must confess that this is not my first stop, though the previous place was much more...hostile. Back then such improvised families were the rule rather than the exception.

[peterpanic]

[He'll deny he's lonely to the ends of- not the earth, but the ends of something, surely. It won't do to start garnering sympathy (or worse, pity) after he's cultivated a particular ruthless independence for himself. That won't do at all. Even when his expression darkens for just a second; families, always a sore spot.

That aside.]

This has happened to you before?

[senseandcecilbility]

[He couldn't be more unaware of Shiroe's issues, but he can see the conflict on his face. Something, something has isolated the boy for a while. He hopes this is going to change here.]

There are about six of us as far as I can tell. We were taken to a place and time equivalent to London, 3314. The world was in complete disarray and dominated by a totalitarian government. Our mission was to defeat it, after which we would be send home. [He offers Shiroe a wry smile.] It seems something went wrong with the last part.

[peterpanic]

[3314 is still ancient history... But considering just how badly the human race has screwed itself up in Shiroe's time, "dominated by a totalitarian government" doesn't seem to surprise him. At all. In fact, he is so unbothered by this apparent fact that he spends a good half a minute rolling a cookie back and forth between his fingers, idly.]

Really? Are you sure you did it at all?

[senseandcecilbility]

Yes.

[Military teaching, family avoidance, space. Kevin doesn't need further clues that Shiroe comes from a rotten world, but both the angel and the servant in him cannot help but keep paying attention to details. What a peculiar child. His question is not misplaced. Memories can be manipulated, he knows too well. And the United Earth was capable of bending space and time without qualms. He has a very empirical method to ascertain that they are indeed gone, though. ]

They did not follow us here.

[peterpanic]

It's only six of you.

[Which means nothing, naturally. Six people are a threat sixfold to any system that demands total compliance, if just one is a threat, and so Kevin's assessment is probably right. Shiroe shrugs and takes a bite of his cookie, because he is nothing but a normal young boy, of course.]

Well, I suppose someone else needed a ship full of nobodies to haul around the universe.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Shiroe is as normal as Kevin is human. He splits his own cookie in half and stares carefully at its contents before finally inserting a tiny bit into his mouth. This is clearly a man with a bad food experience. Still, when he talks to Shiroe, his voice is almost teasing:]

Is that so? You do not strike me as a nobody.

[It is rather unfortunate. They usually prefer the outstanding and unique. Sometimes even the long dead. And yet the most special person Kevin knows has never been taken. He would be nothing but grateful for that if that absence was not like a missing limb. And he knows a thing or two about missing limbs. Six months is too long.]

[peterpanic]

[Oh. Shiroe makes a face around his next bite of cookie; Kevin is one of those casual flatterers, it seems. He suspects part of it is his apparent life of servitude, and part of it is just a natural disposition towards sucking up. He's pretended to be that person before.

But, well, like he'd refute those comments.]

I'm not, but look around you. [He gestures, as if this explains everything he means to say about the general populace.]

[senseandcecilbility]

[He does exactly as he is told, probably taking the command more literally than an adult would. Kevin is a very careful observer, which most likely comes from being the most silent and unnoticed member of a set of four. Observation, after all, is what attracted him to Shiroe.

What he sees is an assorted group of very special individuals. A true patchwork that might either go terribly wrong or work miracles. He cannot recognize most of the species he alights his eyes on, but finds comfort in the fact that no one of them seems to be demonic or even possessed. For the time being.]

...Many of them are not fighters, if that is what you mean. They are, however, someone. Each one of them.

May I ask what your society fights against?

[There must be some sort of enemy to justify all that effort. Herding children, after all, is no easy task.]

[peterpanic]

[Fighters - no, that isn't quite what he means at all. Shiroe blinks and casts a fleeting look over the crowd himself. The change in setting from the place that was not his home to this one is not dramatic enough to shake his harsh judgement of others so quickly, but he is aware that he's painting with a wide brush.

Everyone is someone. That's true. Everyone is someone with a past and the ability to remember it, and so far Shiroe has barely a year to his name and nothing to show for it. Somehow, going from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of the people around him has not improved his mood. About other people.

But probably he's just a little boy with a superiority complex. Surely.]

If you ask me, it's nothing. But they'll feed us all kinds of stories about improving the human race and returning to Terra, so pick whatever you want to believe.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Nothing? Kevin blinks down at the boy, unsettled. Shiroe is not wrong to assume he comes from a Golden Age. Yes, terrible atrocities were still committed and many bad decisions were made, but human thought had been advancing at a speed unheard thought, or so everyone believed. His young master more than most. Even an old creature like him had found in his heart the hope that humans would get things right that time.

And yet, it seems they had been wrong. Again.

...

He smiles softly as he sits back with a small sigh, glancing at the stars.]

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

[It is true that Hugo was technically Michael's, but Uriel has always considered the man very much his]

[peterpanic]

[More ancient history, huh. Shiroe listens, frowning in the way of someone trying to place something they once heard. It's true that a fair amount of classic literature has made it into the far future, but it's also true that a student in Shiroe's position has very little time for leisure reading of such works, especially when closely monitored at all times. Just how much of those old books could inspire someone like him to cross the line?

He can't place it, in the end. The words aren't unfamiliar, he's certain he's heard them before, but the when and where fizzle out. Of course - yet another thing he's sure would mean something, evoke just a little emotion, if not for...

Well.] That's what you want to believe? Indecision and contradiction?

[senseandcecilbility]

[Strange kid, no doubt. But he is fond of strange kids. ]

Is belief a manner of choice, I wonder? [He asks back as he reaches for the mug once more. Perhaps he has stayed too long around Lucifer.] Is what one wants to believe more relevant than what one actually does? Faeries are not merely resurrected by want, are they?

[He leans forward, holding his mug with both hands, a honest smile on his face.]

I will tell a secret, though.

[peterpanic]

[It's clear from the look on his face in that moment that Shiroe could go on about this topic for quite some time, and less clear that he will not. Faeries or no, without conviction he can hardly call himself alive, and so--so. Yes.

He wonders if this secret is going to be as dorky as the three Rs were, earlier...]

Alright, go ahead.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Good, good. He enjoys learning about the boy. All his opinions are like golden coins in a wishing fountain. Keeping himself busy - he has learned a long time ago - is paramount for his sanity. And nobody wishes a crazy angel loose in a star fleet.

Besides, Shiroe clearly deserves all the attention he can get. Most children do, especially those who are coy regarding any talk about family.]

I have tried to count every single work of fiction and non-fiction available in this fleet and... it was like counting the stars in the sky. It is more than enough to change one's beliefs, or make them stronger. Knowledge...[He takes another sip from the mug.]...and all freedom one could wish for to pursue it.

[peterpanic]

[Gosh, you mention one book and every dorky reverend thinks they've got your number... It isn't what he expected, although it's hardly subtle, either. Shiroe can only imagine what Kevin must be assuming about him, to move so persistently within the topic of knowledge. It's a strange sensation, talking about these things, having someone be interested in what he has to say. A prickling of familiarity exists in that, too, from longer ago than he can ever hope to remember except for that it might have happened.

Hmm.

What he does, however, is laugh. Not unkindly.] I don't know what's sillier, that you say you tried to count them or that I already believe you would! Were you bored, Kevin Cecil?

[senseandcecilbility]

[The laughter is well-received by the dorky reverend. His smile becomes even brighter. Looking at his face now is like looking straight at sunshine with no risk of getting blind. that has not always been so.]

Not at all. [That is, naturally, a terrible lie. He was indeed bored out of his feathery mind.

Well, at least, he can offer another truth to compensate for this small trespass.]

I made a bet with myself. Whether I could count them all or not, you see. Alas, I seem to have lost! Though knowing that there are so many books around is a triumph in its own, isn't it?

[peterpanic]

[The thing about coming from a place where everyone does the same thing and only differs in program and grades is -- there are not nearly enough dorky reverends to prepare Shiroe for this moment. He can't even explain why this is happening, or why he has to put down his cookie and cover his face with his hand.

He has. The giggles. Something never thought possible.

Give him a minute.]

It must be! It must be, or you wouldn't have bothered at all. Did you count on your fingers?

[senseandcecilbility]

[Shiroe is, at least for the time being, adorable. It almost paralyses him with wonder to find an almost normal giggling boy in a place like this. A child, after all. And no amount of bad decisions throughout all human history can stop the sheer power of a child's mirth.

He might be laughing too. More reservedly, it is true. And if he ever spills his cocoa again, it is at least for a better reason.]

Heavens, no. I used my notebook.

[A true notebook made of paper and ink. He pulls the historical artifact out of his pocket to prove his words, and then opens it in front of the kid. There are actual numbers there. Equations and probabilities!]

[peterpanic]

[He still won't get a new mug from Shiroe, that was very serious. Shiroe is calmer now, stifling the occasional involuntary bubble of laughter. He pictures Kevin, notebook and pen in hand, drawing tally marks for each book in whatever impossibly large library there is on this ship and nearly loses it again.

But lo, there are equations, and so his incredible mental image of diligently marking each one is sadly disproved. He leans forward to peer at it - mmm math.

...don't criticize the ancient math, do not...]

H-- [hah] How many did you count, with that?

[senseandcecilbility]

[Surprisingly enough, it is actually really good math. The timeless and universal math humans used to come up with inside their heads before computers were created to do all the hard work for them. Simple and straight. It seems that, at some point, Kevin abandoned book counting and just calculated the capacity of the library in general, finding it was virtually infinite.]

734.456.891.234 and still counting. [He looks a little embarrassed, wiping up the cocoa drops once more. The mug is still half full, at least from his point of view.] I had to pause to catch up with our laundry, you see.