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

[catonthefence]

... how enamoured are you with the notion of ownership and possession?

[Because Mogget can make pick pocketing exceptionally easy, thanks to his little bell.]

[shamisens]

[ His eyebrow furrow as he puzzles that out before frowning. ]

We don't need to steal. I make enough to get by.

[ Kubo will never be rich, but even if he was, he'd never know what to do with too much money. ]

[catonthefence]

[Mogget makes a dismissive sound. Theft meant little to him. Possessions meant very little, either. He had nothing and mostly only wanted freedom, revenge, fish and sunbeams.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo being human means possessions. But it's part of the gift his parents gave him.

He makes his way to the center of the shopping hub before bending down and places his pieces of paper on the ground. ]

[catonthefence]

[Mogget watches this strange behaviour.]

What are you doing?

[shamisens]

[ Kubo grins boyishly. ]

Watch.

[ He holds his shamisen carefully and plucks the first few strings to get the crowd's attention. If you must blink, do it now. Pay careful attention to everything you see and hear, no matter how unusual it may seem. And please be warned, if you fidget, if you look away, if you forget any part of what I tell you, even for an instant, then our hero will surely perish.

Satisfied, he starts his song and the paper spins and folds itself into magical creatures. ]

[catonthefence]

[Oh dear.

Moving, fluttering paper.

Mogget's own nature and the bell on his neck are only just enough to stop his pure feline instinct to pounce and kill. His tail starts twitching and he makes tiny, chirping, hunting noises from Kubo's neck, eyes transfixed on the play magic.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo doesn't pay any attention. Everything is given to the story he's weaving, of epic quests and grand sweeping action scenes.

He stumbles towards the end of the story. He's never been good at giving endings, but his resolve hardens as he finishes the story in a dramatic bittersweet flourish that has the guests clapping and a bowl full of money. Quickly he sweeps it all off before leaving, a skip in his step. ]

[catonthefence]

[Mogget rouses himself to hop down with the skip in Kubo's step, flicking his collar around so that Ranna rests on his back instead.]

Is that your magic? It reminds me of something I saw a long time ago.

[shamisens]

[ Kubo jerks to a stop. ]

Really?

[ He knows very little of his origins beyond what his mother has told him. ]

[catonthefence]

Reminds me. Isn't the same. You're not a Charter mage. Still there seem to be some similarities...

... but, Ranna makes me sleepy. Makes it hard to remember.

[shamisens]

Who is Ranna?

[ He glances around, expecting someone else to show up. ]

[catonthefence]

[Mogget ducks his head and shows the silver bell.]

That is Ranna. She keeps me very sleepy.

[shamisens]

So it's a spell.

[ A curse, more likely. Definitely one of the . . . nicer curses he's seen. ]

What happens if I touch it? Would I fall asleep too?

[catonthefence]

No. Not like you're thinking.

A long time ago, some people I knew started fighting and I refused to get involved. When one side won, they were angry at me for not helping them, so they made this and put it on me and activated it with a magic bell which controls Free Magic.

Nothing will happen if you touch it. But I can make it ring and it will make people sleepy. Or inattentive. Ranna the Sleeper.

[shamisens]

[ Now he's tempted to play with it. Kubo is just a kid after all. He restrains the urge, just barely. ]

Are there other bells too?

[catonthefence]

Yes. One for each of the individuals who won the war. Do you want me to tell you about them?

[Given Kubo loves stories and Mogget loves the sound of his own voice, it's a good match up between these two.]

[shamisens]

Let me buy my food first. Then you can tell me all about them.

[catonthefence]

[Mogget leaps back up onto a shoulder and drapes himself again.]

Wake me up when you're ready to listen.

[shamisens]

I will.

[ And Kubo gets his bowl of heated rice, some soup and because he's a nice kid, even picks up a salmon for Mogget. He then settles himself on a bench in a food court, watching people drift by. He picks at his food a little, unsure. ]

[catonthefence]

[Kubo sits, settles and suddenly Mogget is awake and sliding off his shoulder to land in a seat next to him and pull his salmon closer.]

You're a good boy, getting me something to eat.

[Not that he needs food.]

Is yours not good? It smells better than road rations.

[shamisens]

[ He pokes at it with his chopsticks. ]

I think so. I've always cooked the food myself.

[ Carefully, he picks up the rice, chewing carefully. ]

[catonthefence]

[Mogget eats greedily, enjoying gulping down the salmon swiftly and then licking his chops and setting in to clean his face fastidiously of any traces that might be left over.]

Sometimes, Touchstone goes fishing. I make sure to get up on those occasions to steal what he catches. He goes red and shouts and waves his hands; it's most amusing.

[shamisens]

I used to cook for my mother and myself. I've never had anyone else's cooking.

[ He's sure the villagers would have offered him food if he asked, but Kubo was determined to be self-sufficient. To do what he could to help his mother. ]

You probably shouldn't steal other people's food.

[catonthefence]

A fool and his food are quickly parted.

[No, Mogget. That's not even remotely how that saying goes. But... whatever.]

Why did you cook? In most families, parents cook.