driftfleet_ooc | SEPTEMBER TEST DRIVE

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!test drive

SEPTEMBER TEST DRIVE

THE FALL TEST DRIVE MEME
(Or Spring 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!:

September's Star System

Game Details

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

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[ She thinks his attention would be far more unnerving if she wasn’t completely used to having a particular spirit stare at her. Being around Cole has taught her many things and she grasped at that knowledge, considering and thoughtful as she watched the being in front of her. It wouldn’t do her sny good to make rash judgements, especially when she was far too used to being a mage and being a touch too wary.

Instead, she smiles. ]

I bid you welcome, then, Justice. I knew a spirit of Compassion, at home, and he was one of my dearest friends.

[ But she knows what he wants, and she looks down at her hand. Shifting, she shakes her head. ]

It doesn’t work here. We won’t be able to go to the Fade.

A spirit of compassion? [Justice nods slowly. They tend to be fragile, and he's at times extended his protection to certain ones in the Fade when they have struggled with demons far more powerful than them. While he doesn't always agree with their particular approach to the world, he respects the value of their virtue.] It is good that you met one. They are unfailingly good-hearted.

[He's almost relieved when she says she can't pull him into the Fade. It spares him from making a decision, from choosing between seeing what the world has to offer, spending time with the mortals he's come to care for, and going home, where everything is familiar, comfortable, and uncomplicated. But even so, it begs questions.] You're able to just go to the Fade under normal circumstances? Without lyrium or blood?

Yes. His name was Cole. [ And she can still remember his internal debate - being safer, being freer, more human or more spirit. She had gone with him and hoped to guide him, help him, but in the end she felt as though she had made the choice for him. She hadn’t wanted to lose someone she loved so dearly to the dangers of the world, and she had encouraged his spirithood. Was it the right choice? Was anything she chose to do right - and was any of it something she had been manipulated into? ] He wanted to help, more than anything else, even when it hurt him.

[ Its easy to watch as, again, she takes the burden of choice from someone’s shoulders. She can’t open the way for him here and so he is stuck, nowhere to go but to stay. If he had the choice, she wonders, what would he do? Cole hated being in the Fade as a physical being - would Justice feel the same way? Solas would have been curious too, and she winces at the thought. ] The Anchor can open Rifts. I can enter the Fade physically, not through Dreaming. I wouldn’t recommend it, if I am to be honest.

It took a name? ['It' easily rolls off his tongue, but it has none of the dehumanizing quality that someone like Sera would infuse it with. It's simply descriptive; spirits are neither female nor male, so Justice naturally just refers to them all as 'it'. Mortals are the ones who decide to use 'he' or 'she', and Justice just rolls with it for the sake of ease. What's confusing Justice is that the spirit of compassion has a name, because it must have gotten one from somewhere. Did it steal it from someone? Did a mortal name it?]

I don't imagine you would. Your kind aren't meant to be physically in the Fade. It is an inhospitable place for those with physical needs. [You can't eat dreams, after all. Plus, a rift in the Veil would attract all sorts of demons, and they would flock to physical beings like flies. Overall, terrible idea.]

He did. It's a bit of a complicated... Thing. [ That seems the best way to summarise it - not that Cole was a thing, but the story of Cole and Compassion is one that doesn't necessarily make sense, even if you're talking to another spirit. Lavellan knows that, and she makes a conscious effort to show that she does care - that she is interested in what he has to say. She had learned, after all, of the value in spirits, beyond what they might do to a mage. That had been drilled into her by the Keeper, even as wariness had faded into curiosity over time.

His words make her lips twitch just so, all the same. ] You really don't need to tell me that. It wasn't something I'd like to repeat if I can avoid it. [ The discomfort, the uncertainty, the Fear.. No, she's quite happy being on this side of the Veil. ] It's not bothering you too much, is it?

The mark on your hand? Bother is the wrong word.

[He waves his hand as he tries to find the words. If Lavellan is paying close attention, she might notice that he's wearing a ring of raw lyrium.]

It... reminds me of the Fade, and I have been away from it for longer than I ever have been. I am trapped in the mortal world, and I did not know of any way to go back.

It is... [He has to struggle for the right description.] It soothes me, but it makes me ache for the Fade as well.

I think I understand.

[ It's something like how she felt when she saw all the incredible elven ruins as she wandered throughout Thedas and the Marches; it was like coming home, but it rubbed the wrong way, an echo of something she felt as though she had forgotten even if she had never known it in the first place. It was difficult to manage, and it frustrated her.

She had never felt a literal pull, though, and she glances down at her hand before she breathes out and shakes her head. ]

Do you want to go back? To the Fade?

[ If Solas' plan worked... Would that be possible for Justice? Could she ask Cole if it was possible, if he was here? ]

I... I don't know. Or... yes, maybe, but not yet.

[It is confusing. Justice is used to being very decisive, but this is one question that ties him into knots. He had no choice about leaving the Fade, and he has no choice about staying in the mortal world now, so it really shouldn't bother him so much, and yet...]

The mortal world has so much beauty in it. We spirits pity mortals who are so fundamentally disposed to vice and live in a world of hardship, but I've see how one-sided that view is. The mortal world is hard, and its people can do terrible things, but there is so much good here too, and mortals struggle every day to make it better. There is wonder in that, and this world is worth fighting for. I wish for a chance to experience it, and to serve it in some way before I leave.

[If... he ever leaves. Which might not happen. Which should horrify him, but it doesn't. It's not a happy thought, but not explicitly unhappy either.

Also, he has friends here. Mortal friends who make him smile and treat him kindly even when he doesn't always understand them and they don't always understand him. He wants to be with them while time permits.]

Not yet, but perhaps in the future.

[ Lavellan can, at least, empathise. She had thought about returning to her clan once her work with the Inquisition was done, but there doesn't seem to be any end of that. Not with what Solas is planning, her Anchor still burning in her palm and the world still desperate for someone to guide it.

It's endlessly frustrating, for all that she loves her friends and fellows. ]

I think that is admirable. There are many terrible things about our world, and the last few years have seen more than, perhaps, most. To find optimism in that despite knowing the peace of the Fade is something worth respecting.

[ There's no reason not to be honest, after all; Lavellan has an optimistic streak as bright and wide as her kind one.

She wonders what the others would think if she came home and told them she had been engaged in casual world theoretics with a Spirit.

They'd expect it, she imagines. ]

I hope that we can see more of that goodness here, too.

It helps to spend time with the right mortals. [At that, his mouth twitches, like there's the ghost of a smile there for a moment. There might even be a droplet of humor in his voice, but it's hard to tell. It's probably not actually there.]

This place seems to have good people, for the most part. I have mostly only seen humans, and few mages. Most seem unfamiliar with spirits and demons entirely.

[The number of times he's had to explain what a spirit is, Lavellan. The number of times.]

But I have not been here long. It may yet prove more treacherous than it seems.

[ The right mortals and the wrong ones - she can understand that. She had seen what the wrong sorts of people could do, after all, and she had cast judgement on them all; that had been her role, her position, her duty. The discomfort she felt as a result of it wasn't something that would disappear forever, but it would fade, in time.

At least this particular spirit was attempting some kind of optimism - or something like it. It was worthy. ]

I have heard of one other elf being here, but otherwise it is just me. [ The idea doesn't sit well with her, but what can she do? She's is but one person, and she doesn't have any control over who gets brought here. It's probably better that no one else comes. ]

I hope it is not so treacherous that you begin to feel regret.

That is my understanding, yes.

[He has limited experience with elves--mostly because he has limited experience with everyone who isn't a spirit or a demon--but he imagines that it will be uncomfortable for her to be one of the only ones among so many humans. He knows that it was uncomfortable for Velanna.

This elf has his sympathy, but he doesn't know what can be done about the discomfort she will have.

He shakes his head, the corners of his eyes softening.] I do not believe it is possible to make me regret seeing the mortal world.

[Unless something crazy happens like he becomes a demon or whatever, but that would never happen. ~~sob~~]

[ She's not entirely sure she wants to meet the other elf that's here - either they'll be Dalish and they'll hate her or they won't be and they'll hate her. Her optimism towards her own people has become shockingly jarred thanks to her relationship with Solas. She simply can't rationalise half of her own beliefs anymore, and they've become a confusing mess in her mind.

At least conversing is easier, and Justice isn't an elf that will condemn her one way or another. ]

We will come across one another eventually. It seems to be difficult to avoid people here.

[ There is so many of them, and yet...

At least her expression gentles, and she nods her head, stepping just a little bit closer. ]

I am glad to hear that. Our world may not always be the best, but it is beautiful.

[The closer she gets, the more it feels like the Fade could envelop him, and the more soothed he is. He almost feels like Ser Pounce-a-lot lounging in front of a fireplace. He used to think the cat was being lazy when he did that, but suddenly he understands.

Some of his relaxation may appear in his body language--looser shoulders, softening stare--but he's not particularly expressive at the best of times.]

It is.

[So much more beautiful than he thinks many mortals realize.] This planet is beautiful as well. The city bears the marks of the work its people put into it, and the wilderness defies description. [He can show her around if she likes, so long as he gets to be near her mark.]

[ Lavellan hopes that it's not causing him any discomfort - that's not what she wants, after all. She wants to stand here at his side and offer friendship and calm consideration, not something dangerous or unsettling. She knows what he said, but what he said and how it influences him are two very different things.

At least he seems like he's relaxing, and that eases some of the tension in her shoulders. ]

I do miss the wilderness. [ It's said almost wryly, her arms behind her. ] I was used to living in forests and caravans, not large keeps with huge bedrooms. It takes a little time to get accustomed to it all.

You're Dalish? [Justice has been under the impression that all the adults in Dalish clans had face tattoos like Velanna, but perhaps he was mistaken.] I fought alongside a Dalish mage for a long time. She also dislikes living inside keeps. I doubt she will ever become accustomed to it. [If she even sticks around. With the Orlesian Wardens, overwhelmingly human, coming in and trying to force them all in neat lines, Justice isn't sure Velanna will stick around long.]

There are many mountains outside of the city, and a ravine so large that a jungle grows at the bottom. I can lead you there, if you wish. [Who wants an adventure??]

I am. [ She'd very deliberately avoiding any thought of conversing about her vallaslin, however. It's an incredibly sore spot, and she's still not entirely okay with how things turned out. At least it doesn't seem as though he's likely to push. ] I had to get used to it, after a little while. It was hard not to when your home was a castle and your bedroom was bigger than any caravan could be.

[ She's not... Thrilled about the fact that she got used to finery, but she'd be glad of the chance to go back to her roots - and she lights up at the suggestion. ]

Yes, please. I would love to accompany you, Justice.

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SEPTEMBER TEST DRIVE

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