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]

[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.

[shamisens]

My mother had . . . problems during the day time.

[ He never fully knew what happened, but he knew she fought for him. Every day. Every night. ]

And I didn't know my father then.

[catonthefence]

Was she dead?

[In Mogget's world, dead things don't like day time.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo shakes his head. ]

No. She was from the Heavens. And she got hurt once, long ago.

[catonthefence]

She was from... the sky?

[Again: Mogget's world has no 'Heaven' and no celestial beings.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo's face crinkles in confusion. ]

No. Heaven. Uh . . . she's a celestial being.

[catonthefence]

[Mogget cants his head.]

No... I don't understand. She's a... star?

[shamisens]

[ He stares a little. ]

You have magic but no . . . Gods?

[catonthefence]

The world is magic.

Maybe it's something they have on the Other Side of the Wall. Gods. What a strange idea. What are Gods?

[shamisens]

I can't really explain it well. They're like forces. At least . . . the ones who live in the Heavens are perfect. Cold. Bright. They never feel pain. Or loss. Or heartbreak.

[ Like his aunts. His grandfather. ] They have no humanity.

[catonthefence]

[Mogget considers this.]

Then... I am a god. A god enslaved by other gods.

[Oh good, now Mogget thinks he's a god... Like all other cats.]

[shamisens]

[ Uhhhh. Kubo wisely doesn't choose to protest that. ]

I guess you can say that.

[catonthefence]

I am a force of magic. Not mortal. I am from before the world as the mortals understand it. Would this fit your definition of a god?