Second Test Drive Meme

[ourearth]

Second Test Drive Meme



Welcome to the SoE TDM!

Due to the premise of the game, everyone on this testdrive must be the modern day reincarnation of the characters we all know and love. Please take a quick look at our navigation to familiarize yourself with the concept and setting of the game before you jump in.

If you have a relationship plotting post comment for your character (which is NOT mandatory to play in this tdm), please link to it when putting up a toplevel on the TDM. That way, other players can easily get an idea of what kind of character they will be tagging.

Other than that, you know the tdm drill - when commenting, please put your character's name and canon in the subject line, and write one or more threadstarters so others can tag you easily. Below, you'll find some prompts that you can use or discard at will to write those threadstarters.

1. A ghostly apparition

There are many places in Mossgate Council where one may spot ghosts, but the place that yields such sightings most frequently is the ruins at the top of the cliffs. So one beautiful night, you're up there - for a date? To smoke weed? To watch the stars with a bottle of whiskey? - as you suddenly notice something out of the corner of your eye. Perhaps it is a bearded man in a long cloak, or a woman in historical clothes, or something much more outlandish... What do you do?

2. Old ships

A new exhibit at the museum has opened! ...Or rather an old exhibit has reopened after some repairs and an overhaul of the presentation. So now the old pre-Roman-times ship that is the pride of the museum can be visited by the public again, and of course there are all kinds of advertisement around town, and a large sign in the entrance are of the building guiding visitors towards the correct room. The ship sits elevated on a platform in the middle of the room and other items and explanations are placed along the walls. A volunteer guide is always close by to explain more about the ship (if your character is the volunteer guide - just make something up!).

3. Moss Manor gathers

In Moss Manor, there is reason for curiosity, gossip and free drinking. Wait. No. Of course it's just that the village gathers to warmly welcome the new vicar of the local church, and since that church is so important locally, even those who aren't directly related to it show up to say hi.

But while they're there, why not take advantage of the free food and drink and the opportunity to talk to everyone else at the welcome festivity?

4. Water activities

In Folkton, summer has begun. People are boating on the little river, sitting near the water while studying or take an afternoon nap there, older relatives try to keep children from falling into the water or at least not going in without supervision, and occasionally someone is yelling at a dog that just took a leap into the cool waters and splashed them at everyone in the general surroundings. An ice cream van is parked near the river, and some kids play football near the river.

5. The wonderful everyday

Being people living in our regular, modern world, people need to work or study, eat and commute, shop and relax... Just that all those regular, normal tasks can hold unexpected difficulties if you were just sitting at the tills at Tesco's, and this noseless customer suddenly made you remember the day you lost your parents. Or maybe you were getting some exercise, and running down the street you developed superspeed and have no idea how to control it yet...

6. How many times will they have to tell you?

Twice a year, there are guided tours through the tunnels under the cliffs east of Mossgate. Those tunnels, dug into the chalk throughout centuries or perhaps millenia, were built without a general plan, so their layout is an absolute confusing mess. On top of that, there are cave-ins and unsafe areas. It is strictly advised to not stray from your group, as people have been harmed because they got lost in them before. But you just had to get distracted, or perhaps think that it would be more fun to explore on your own, and now you are lost without a blip of signal to call for help with...

7. Fun, fun fun!

At Mossgate's seaside, a Victorian pleasure pier extends about 40 metres into the sea. The platform at the end of the pier holds fairground rides such as a merry-go-round, a small rollercoaster and a helter skelter and along the pier kiosks sell candy floss, rock candy, roasted nuts and other goodies. A small distance down the street, a minigolf site can be found and on the street along the coast there are fish and chips shops, family-friendly arcades and souvenir shops. Maybe you are actually here for the fun, or maybe you just work here or are trying to track down a wayward friend...

8. Wildcard

And, of course, the obligatory do-what-you-want option.

Comments

Spring Sprite | Fantasia 2000

[vernal_miss]

4

Already soaked and dripping with the river water, one young girl is walking gingerly through the shallows at the edge of the river a short distance from where her siblings are at play. Her dark eyes are focused down, scanning beneath the surface to the stones in the mud. Pauses in her steps are frequent, but quite suddenly she stops all together. Freezing in place with drips of water falling from the locks of her long red hair, she stares at something in the water. Ever so slowly, she crouches where she stands to slide her hands through the surface and down to scoop something out. Water trickles from her tightly cupped hands as she peers curiously at a crayfish.

7

The pier is rather busy this day in the lovely weather, and numerous people are walking between the attractions and distracted by their conversations. Drifting between the streams of movement, Ornella walks back and forth with a frown crimping her expression and her hands wringing at the top layer of her skirt in the front. Her eyes are flickering from face to face, looking for someone familiar. It had only taken a matter of seconds to get separated from her family, and every passing minute heightens her distress.

8

Curiosity leads her as Ornella wanders through the quiet spaces in the park wearing overalls with her hair barely tamed into a ponytail. With a small plastic whistle held in her lips buzzing faintly every so often from her breathing, she seeks a place to sit in the shade. In her hands, she carries a spiral-bound sketchbook, a tin of pencils, and a well worn eraser. There must be something to sketch nearby. In fact, perhaps it lies right around the bush ahead!

8+
(Open!)

8, obviously~

[peridexion]

Around that bush lies a shaded bench! And on that bench, trying to be as out-of-the-way as possible, is one person who is not paying all that much attention.

They appear to be lost in thought, not ill or distressed, but Ornella shouldn't worry about disturbing them in order to sit down!

In one of their hands, they hold a leaf, carefully rubbing it and folding it over and around as a sort of calming exercise.

[vernal_miss]

Rounding the tall bush, she stops as she spots someone seated on a bench in such a comfortable location. This person doesn’t appear to have noticed her yet, or isn’t bothering to look back over a shoulder, so she looks outward. The bench lends a particularly nice view of this small section of the park.

Slowly, she walks intending to come around the bench, but she notices the leaf being manipulated in his hands. Her direction changes to instead walk directly behind the bench to the side where they sit and come to stand by the edge of the bench as Ornella looks more closely at the way they’re moving the leaf. So focused on looking for a pattern, she forgets about the whistle in her mouth until it gives another tiny buzz. Quickly, she bites the whistle and covers it with her tongue to make it silent.

[peridexion]

Peri looks up abruptly, turns to look behind them-

And, after a moment's internalized calming, smiles reassuringly.

"You're not in trouble, miss," they say - their voice a comforting tenor - and hold up the leaf for Ornella to get a better look.

"Just a meditation exercise. Like folding paper, though if you treated this like paper, you'd break it."

*their hands

[vernal_miss]

The wide-eyed look fades as she is told she is not in trouble for the small sound from her whistle. She relaxes her bite on it and lets it drop from her lips to hang by the cord around her neck to avoid making another unintentionally. Her family only gave it to her so she can call for attention after all.

Curious, she shuffles a little closer as the leaf is held up to see more easily. The movements of the leaf and their fingers is interesting to watch. With a glance to her things, she sets them to the grass next to the bench and scurries back to the bush. Looking around at the bottom, she finds a leaf to pick up from the ground and carries it back in her hands to stand next to them at the bench again. This time, she wants to try to do it while she watches.

S'awright. o/

[peridexion]

Well, attention has been gained! Funny how that works out.

Peri is briefly puzzled when Nel doesn't take the leaf - ah, but she's getting a matching one! Smart.

"Wanting to do as I do, hm?" They don't gesture for her to sit down, though she very much can if she likes!

Once things look settled, they start in on the light foldings, settling into a rhythm like how a breeze would move a wave on the ocean - or a lake, or something smaller.

Well it bothers me not to correct it

[vernal_miss]

Ornella cracks a smile as they interpret her intention correctly, and she nods with her hair bouncing from her back in the motion. Without a gesture to sit, she remains standing with her things at her feet. She is too excited to settle down enough to sit!

As they start to show her again, her fingers barely move as she starts finding the rhythm with a bob of her head as though counting the beats. When she does finally start to try to produce the folds, they are clumsy and lopsided, but gentle. It takes her several restarts to find the pacing now that she’s doing the motions, but as her efforts become more consistent, her smile widens. She is getting it, even if she needs more practice.

Consistency is a virtue~ (Okay, so it's not literally one. XD)

[peridexion]

This certainly is the sort of exercise used to help with fidgeting impulses...

Peri's focus moves from their own 'flow' after a while, checking on Ornella's results instead. Gentle is a good sign.

"See? You're doing just fine."

With a florish, they 'tie' the leaf around itself, then just as carefully unwind it - that trick only works with long stems, but this one's big enough that the 'knot' looks satisfying anyway.

It could be tho

[vernal_miss]

The praise is met with a small wiggle of her hips as her smile brightens even more. This is a fun game and she finds it calming as it keeps her full attention just to play along.

Her hands fold together over the leaf to hold it still as she is surprised by the sudden but fluid shift in movements to make the knot that is promptly undone. Ornella looks at the one teaching her with a blank sort of expression - she definitely did not follow that - only to shrug her shoulders and toss the leaf in the air with a crooked, playful smile. They win!

Bending down, she scoops up her things in her arms. Not even fully standing yet, she walks as soon as she has them in her grip out and around in front of them to the other side where the bench is open. Setting the stuff down, she turns and hops herself up onto the seat next to them. Beaming a friendly smile to them, she picks up her sketchbook to open in her lap, then pops the tin to fish out a pencil. Without a word, she sets to drawing on the fresh page.

7

[blueskying]

"Ornella!"

Sky's getting more used to having a sixth sense, to using it. He pauses to close his eyes and listen harder, though 'listen' isn't quite the correct word. Everyone in his range possesses a flickering, staticky shell of thoughts and emotions, each different enough that with a touch of effort he can tell them apart from each other and map them to physical locations. At times it's like a radio being tuned improperly; he can't quite get a clear signal but there are voices in the static.

Sort of. Metaphors start falling apart if he leans on them too hard. Sky calls "Ornella!" again, listening for the reaction to the name.

[vernal_miss]

The number of voices surrounding her are a babble of pitches and timbres. The words spoken flow into a background as her own inner voice rises with confusion and fear. She doesn’t know which way to turn because she cannot remember which attraction was next in the list of requests among her siblings; especially when requests tended to pull them in alternating directions or be reordered intermittently due to various influences. Maybe they would come back this way soon....but how long until they leave the pier?

Yet, through it all, that trained recognition triggers at the sound of her name, causing her to freeze in place and strain to listen. She knows precisely who is calling her the second time her name is shouted, and turns towards the direction from which she hears it. Distant though it seems, she starts walking towards where she thinks her grandfather is calling her from, and tries to wind her way through the mess of legs and other children to get there. In her mind, she’s nearly screaming I’m here!

[blueskying]

There we go. When Sky opens his eyes he can still pinpoint the person he's looking for. Whatever presence-sensing is it's mapped onto his general awareness as if he's always been able to do this. He forges on steadily, feeling swallowed by the crowd's collective presence. Where... yes.

"There you are," he says, and reaches out with his left hand. He's got the more handlike prosthetic for his right today, more yielding and less deft than the hooks. "Did you get turned around?"

[vernal_miss]

Worry begins to mount once more when she no longer hears her name being called. It does not stop her from continuing forward, and instead hastens her pace in hopes of catching up before she loses the only lead she has to her family. Darting around other pedestrians, her long hair swings with her movements and the turn of her head as she looks side to side. She very nearly collides with a woman’s oversized purse in the effort, and stumbles to regain her balance in the near miss.

Ornella feels herself breathing faster as she turns to reset on her previous course when her grandfather speaks from right next her. As soon as she sees his hand stretched out towards her, she springs forward to grasp it with both of her smaller hands latching tight. In that instant, she knows she’s safe, and the relief shows in a well of tears in her eyes as she looks up to his face. All she manages in answer is a nod of her head before she steps in closer, seeking to lean in against him if she can.

[blueskying]

Sky immediately holds the child against himself, patting her on the back. It's hard to be a sensitive kid. At her age he'd been pretty independent, always running off and getting into trouble, convinced for several years that his aunt and uncle hated him - but of course it's one thing to race away into familiar fields and stands of trees, another to get turned around in the midst of a welter of strange people. He knows she's willing to do the former.

"There, there. Of course we were going to find you," he murmurs, knowing the tone matters more than the words just now. "You're all right. Aren't you?"

[vernal_miss]

He knows her well then to recognize she’d vanish into a range of flora in an instant.

Permitted closer, a sign she is not in so much trouble as she had worried upon first realizing she was separated, she releases his hand to find purchase holding the fabric of his clothes instead as she burrows her face right in against him. A few deep breathes with his hand patting on her back, and the fear dissipates. A hard blink pushes the tears away, and when she lifts her face to peer upwards again, a slim smile has appeared. She nods her head a few more times to confirm that yes, she is in fact quite right.

Ornella is a bit small for her age, but the recent loss of her voice has changed a lot in how well she relates and responds socially. Left out of discussion, her attention wanders all too easily.

[blueskying]

"I'll give your parents a text message and say you're with me, do you want that?" He's not entirely up on modern technology and its terminology but he's no Luddite.

There are options, for a mute child, and in some ways they're easier to explore than for adults. Sky has friends with electrolarynxes, little handheld voice boxes pressed to their throats to give them whispery electronic voices, and some with less obvious ways to communicate. Or more obvious ways. He can read; he can read lips from straight on at close range, if they're not moving too fast; he can understand some American sign language, though British sign language is nearly incomprehensible to him. There's no reason to treat her like she can't participate in conversations or make her own decisions just because it's a little harder.

Bluh, sorry for letting this get away so long.

[vernal_miss]

His suggestion to send her parents a text is met with an enthusiastic nod and a stronger smile. Not only would that alleviate any more worry over her getting briefly lost, but it would mean she could linger a few minutes with her grandfather on her own before rejoining the group. Her hands release the fabric to stretch her arms around him as far as she can reach for a hug. She might cling more for a while yet, but this is specifically to show gratitude.

It’s hard in a family with three other siblings who are eager to fill the void left at the loss of her voice. They aren’t even doing it consciously, but less competition vying for attention from two busy mothers is a grand opportunity. There has been some discussions regarding how to best help Ornella cope, sign language high on the list even if it means the whole family has to dedicate to it to make it effective. Ornella tends to cheat by writing on a dry erase board around the house for now, and that method is unfortunately ineffective when they are on the go.

4

[catted]

Marja is sitting on the side of the riverbank, a book at her side - she would read, but while there's children in the water that she has to keep an eye on, she won't distract herself like that. Instead she just basks in the sun (all hail the sunscreen) and makes sure that her own children as well as the children that she's agreed on keeping an eye out for, too, all stay accounted for.

Which is why she notices when Ornella concentrates on the river and then scoops something out.

...A fish? Or something less savoury?

She stands and then wades over towards her daughter to see what she got there.

"What did you catch?"

Going with prior to voice loss so I can actually get a speaking voice figured

[vernal_miss]

Absolutely captivated by her new small friend, Ornella only notices her mother coming over as she hears the splash of the water. Looking up and over, her expression brightens into a proud smile as she takes a couple steps to meet her mother. Eager to share the find, she holds her cupped hands up higher carefully to keep the water as long as she can in order to show off the fresh water crustacean, “I found a crayfish!”

For the moment, the confused critter is crawling around in that water, prodding at her palms, but not pinching her.

[catted]

"Huh," she leans down a bit to have a look. "Well done." Well spotted and identified.

"I bet he's confused as to where he is all of a sudden, and a bit freaked out, though, so you shouldn't keep him for too long." Not long enough to get pinched, at least.

[vernal_miss]

The perspective offered on behalf of the crayfish makes her think, and she brings her hands back close to her chest to peek. It is moving around more rapidly as the water continues to drain from her hands despite her best effort, “Aw...he is.” Promptly, she steps back to her previous spot to crouch down and lower her hands back into the water slowly, the water refills, and it wriggles out into the current, making her squeal and jump away with a splash when it disappears under her.

Standing back up, she walks back over to her mother and eagerly asks, “If I don’t take them out of the water, can I look for more?” Without upsetting the crayfish.

[catted]

She smiles. "Of course you can. Just don't dive without telling me that you will do so first, yes?"

It's absolutely not her intention to curbstomb the child's curiosity. Anything but. Empathy and safety are just important, too.

"Where were you thinking about looking?"

[vernal_miss]

Nodding her head in agreement quickly, she acknowledges the limit, “‘Kay!”

Asked regarding a location to search, Nel has to stop and think. She would likely have started here and followed the river bank without even looking up ahead of herself very far. “Umm...” she utters as she turns to look around. Deeper water would make it hard to find them without going under herself, but she quickly spots a wide, shallow pool of water. It simply happens to be on the other side of the river.

Pointing over to the area, she looks back to her mother, “How about there? I bet the water is slower.”

[catted]

On the one hand, it is a small river.

On the other hand, it is still big enough that it would take her a bit to get over there.

Potentially too long. She scans this side of the river and then points towards a spot a little ways upstream on this side. Less shallow, but still shallow enough, and easier to get to in a pinch.

Smaller, too, but if Nel sticks with the task for too long, they can always find a new place. "You could also start there. The water should be slower there, too, and it's closer by."

[vernal_miss]

Arm falling back to her side, Nel follows the way her mother points upstream with her eyes. She saw it vaguely scanning a moment ago, but it is given a second consideration. Shrugging her shoulders, she smiles, “That’s a good spot too. And if I find something else I don’t have to go as far to show you.”

Speaking of which, she asks curiously, “Are you going to go sit back down?” It’s not what she’d prefer, but her mother does have more than just herself to watch today.