WINTER TEST DRIVE

[thespaceopera]

THE WINTER TEST DRIVE MEME
(Or Summer Test Drive for you Southern Hemisphere folks!)

Got someone you want to try out before you app? Well this is the post for it! Feel free to use anything that fits in the setting of Drift Fleet! Want to play bumper shuttles? Want to go wild in a med bay? Play around with the current plot? Have at it!

Threads from the Test-Drive may be made game "canon" but DO NOT count toward AC!

FOR NEW PLAYERS: You DO NOT NEED an invite to participate in the TEST DRIVE! If you decide to APP into the game, ONLY THEN will you need an invite from a current player!

Helpful Info for Ideas!:

December's Star System

Game Details

Test drives are posted SEASONALLY, so the next one will be in March!

Comments

[shamisens]

What were your other forms like?

[ Even though his tone is polite, it doesn't disguise the eagerness of a child wanting to know more.

But Mogget asks a question that stumps Kubo. He brushes some of his long hair back. ]

The story behind my name? I'm afraid I don't know it.

[catonthefence]

[Mogget hums and flops onto his side, stretching and then curling up, eyes falling to half mast.]

Infinite and varied. Both my forms and names. I was many things and often not any one thing. But that was a long, long time ago.

What is your name, human who wants stories?

[shamisens]

I have time!

[ No, Kubo. ]

My name is Kubo.

[catonthefence]

Kubo.

[Mogget butts his head up, inviting a scratch or smooch of some kind.]

Mogget comes from a slang word for a domestic cat of no particular pedigree. Probably. I've been Mogget for so long that I simply am, now.

[shamisens]

[ Kubo quickly obliges, scratching under Mogget's ears. ]

You must be really old.

[catonthefence]

I've been Mogget for over a thousand years.

[He leans into the scratching, head going heavy in Kubo's fingers.]

You are... twelve? Maybe thirteen?

[shamisens]

Twelve.

[ A thousand years. Briefly, Kubo wonders how old his mother must have been, living in the heavens. Easily a lot older than she looked. ]

Was there something you needed to do as Mogget? Some kind of quest?

[catonthefence]

[Mogget screws up his face, because he has to actually answer that honestly.]

No. I'm bound. My collar forces me to be less things. To serve. Sometimes my masters removes my collar, but they always put it back on before I can have my revenge for my centuries of enslavement.

[shamisens]

Oh . . .

[ Revenge. Dimly, Kubo thinks of his grandfather. ]

Do you think it'll be worth it?

[catonthefence]

Hm.

[Thousands of years of Charter magic burning around it, forcing it to be a single thing at a time, to help those who enslaved no matter what...]

Yes. Yes, I think it will be worth it. If not this Abhorsen, maybe the next. Or the one after. Eventually I will be free and take my revenge for the whole line.

[shamisens]

And then what will you do?

What's there to live for?

[catonthefence]

Fish.

[Mogget says this with the sort of smug self satisfaction only a cat can manage.]

I will hunt and eat fish. And laze in sunbeams. And be whatever shape I want.

[shamisens]

[ Kubo can't help it, he grins. ]

I think fishing should come first. It's much more satisfying.

[catonthefence]

Hunting fish.

[The time honoured tradition of rod and line and bait isn't easy with no hands. And Mogget has been Mogget long enough that it forgets, sometimes, that it will have hands then. If it wants.]

Smacking them out of the water and chewing into them.

[He licks his chops.]

[shamisens]

You really like fish, huh?

[ So does Kubo. It's one of his fondest memories - and he doesn't have that many. Idly, he continues to scratch under Mogget's chin. ]

[catonthefence]

Mm. Yes. I like fish. Raw and cooked and lightly marinated and mixed into a light broth...

[Mogget leans forward more, pushing Kubo's hand down to his chest more for rubbing.]

[shamisens]

[ He chuckles softly. ]

I think I got the idea, Mogget.

[catonthefence]

Fish is good. I even liked eating fish before I was Mogget.

[Did he? Maybe. Before Mogget was a very different thing.]

Do you like eating fish, or just catching them?

[shamisens]

Both.

[ He presses down the folds on his clothes. ]

My father taught me how to fish.

[catonthefence]

Your face is unhappy. Your father is dead, then?

[Sorry. He's not very good with 'grief'.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo doesn't answer for a few seconds before he inhales quietly, calming himself. ]

Yes. But I have my memories. And his story.

[catonthefence]

Yes. Memories. Stories are important to you, clearly. Do you use them to make magic?

[In his experience, humans are mostly interested in things which let them do magic, to follow a set of rules to power.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo blinks, surprised this time. ]

Kind of. How did you know?

[catonthefence]

[Mogget smiles the smug kitty smile.]

How do you think I know?

[shamisens]

Because . . . you're really old and also not really a cat?