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]

Partly, yes, when Astarael rings. It throws me into Death, but I can stroll back out.

[That which is never born and all that.

Death and dying are vastly different in Mogget's world from most. Much closer linked. Much less metaphysical.]

[shamisens]

. . . I'm not following. How can you do that?

[catonthefence]

I just can. When Astarael rings, it shatters my collar. I come back as myself. It's only happened once and Sabriel- Put this back on us again.

[Admittedly, she put it on Kerrigor, but he'd been busy chomping on Mogget's magic at the time.]

[shamisens]

[ As he finishes his rice, Kubo tries to sort out this information. ]

It seems like Death is more like trouble than inevitable.

[catonthefence]

Mortals die. Many things die. But going to Death and dying aren't the same.

[shamisens]

Why not?

[catonthefence]

Death is a place. A river. So people can send themselves there. Most can't walk back, they get swept along the river and then their bodies die when they pass too deep.

Living here is not what "Life" is.

[shamisens]

[ Then it's not death. Just some kind of magic that links Life and Death together. Nodding, Kubo notes that. Like stories, like the birds that fly away, like the lanterns that light up.

Death takes many forms. ]

[catonthefence]

[Whatever helps you sleep at night, Kubo.]

There was a child's song made about it all. A couple, actually.

[shamisens]

[ :( ]

A song?

[catonthefence]

Yes.

Five Great Charters knit the land,
Linked together, hand in hand.
One in the people who wear the crown,
Two in the folk that keep the Dead down.
Three and Five became stone and mortar,
Four sees all in frozen water.

[Mogget voice is surprisingly sweet when he sings.]

All the children in the Old Kingdom learn that song. About the Shiners who became the Charter.

[shamisens]

[ Kubo places his chopsticks and takes out his shamisen, trying to strum out the tune. The papers on his back shift. ]

Does it help?

[catonthefence]

... help what?

[Mogget cocks his head.]

[shamisens]

Remembering. Or just. Y'know, with life.

[catonthefence]

I never forget what happened.

[The collar won't let him.]

Do you want to hear the other song? About the Seven Shiners?

[shamisens]

Sure. I'd like that.

Sorry. Holidays and storms happened.

[catonthefence]

[Again, Mogget has a surprisingly sweet singing voice. Not quite bell like, but there's a resonate quality to it.]

I’ll sing you a song of the long ago -
Seven shine the shiners, oh!
What did the Seven do way back when?
Why, they wove the Charter then!

Five for the warp, from beginning to end.
Two for the woof, to make and mend.
That’s the Seven, but what of the Nine-
What of the two who chose not to shine?

The Eighth did hide, hide all away,
But the Seven caught him and made him pay.
The Ninth was strong and fought with might,
But lone Orannis was put out of the light,

Broken in two and buried under hill,
Forever to lie there, wishing us ill.

no problem <3 it was a busy time for all of us

[shamisens]

You have a lot of songs to remember the past.

[catonthefence]

The humans have them. Sing them, as nursery rhymes, but they don't remember how true they are, what they mean.

[shamisens]

Because the meaning was lost?

[catonthefence]

Yessss.

[A cat shouldn't be able to draw out a verbal hiss like that.]

They ring bells and think they understand what they mean, but they've never seen one of us. Not really.

... do you want to see what they never have?

[shamisens]

[ He considers this before nodding. ]

[catonthefence]

[Mogget leans in, stretching his head upwards, lengthening his neck.]

Undo my collar.

[His voice is a whisper, intimate and suggesting.]

[shamisens]

[ Kubo just gives him a look. ]

Isn't that a bad idea?

[catonthefence]

No.

[Not to Mogget, it isn't.]

I can show you what a Shining One looks like. I'm the only one left.