TEST DRIVE MEME (4)

[trainmasters]

test drive meme

Your character wakes up in a neat bedroom in their team carriage, in nondescript underwear. They might be missing their memories, or their special abilities, or they may just feel a little queasy. Next to them is what seems to be a smartphone, which they know how to use even if they never had before, even if they don't know if they have before. On the screen is a simple message:

Welcome aboard the Aurora!

You have been selected by the Star Prince as a potential hero, tasked with saving the universe from Malice. As a passenger I, your Construct and Conductor, will attempt to provide you with quality lodgings and safety. In return, we ask that you join your fellows in making bonds and doing your utmost to bring joy back to the Stars.

Due to the process of restoring your body, you may find some things are missing. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope to return them to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation.

★ One
Upon investigation, you'll find some basic clothes matching your team's theme in the storage provided in your room. Or, perhaps, you're wandering out of the room still undressed. Either way, downstairs you'll find someone has left a tray of cups of hot tea on the living room table. Drinking it may be simply pleasant, or it may cause you to feel a sudden need to warm up to the others in your carriage -- emotionally or physically. Welcome to the team, newbie!

☆ Two
Shortly after your arrival, you find yourself wrapped up in some monster NPC's Game. You're inside what appears to be a stone temple, with a massive golden scale on one wall. Suddenly, on one side, a heavy metal weight is dropped. As the scales tip out of balance, the floor begins to slowly disappear, brick by brick, ready to drop you -- and whoever is with you -- into an abyss. Your only hope comes in the form of an inscription on the altar:

How much do your secrets weigh?

Every secret you tell causes a weight to fall onto the other side of the scale. The bigger the secret, the bigger the weight. If you can collectively tip the scales, the floor will quit dropping bricks and a door will appear to allow you back to the train. If you can't, you'll fall, seemingly forever, til you pass out. When you wake up you'll find yourself unable to lie.

★ Three
You've been in aurora for awhile -- long enough to have recovered a memory/power or two, if you lost any. And it's lucky for you: today, the area around the train has been surrounded in a strange mist that makes you feel dizzy and overly warm. Left alone, your condition will slowly degrade, with increasing lethargy and shortness of breath until you lose consciousness. The cure is easy enough, though -- touch another person and they'll see one of your memories, experiencing it as if it's their own. The effect is mutual -- you now have a piece of eachother, and you're safe from the illness... at least until you take another big breath. Good thing there's no mist inside the train!

☆ Four
Wildcard. Make up your own prompt! Check out the setting and team pages for info on the train. If you have any questions, ask on the q&a page. Otherwise, apps open on February 8! In the meantime you're free to join us on Discord.

Comments

[purrtagonist]

[must've been!! a tiny weight falls on the scale, after all]

I thought about going for six, but that would've been pushing my luck.

My small, scrappy luck.

[wellhanged]

Theft for a theft, then--I stole the pearls of the ruling regent of my home country.

[a small weight falls--it's not that much of a secret, apparently.]

[purrtagonist]

[blinks a bit in surprise, not having expected that kind of secret for his ridiculous convenience store theft story]

Huh. . .

[he seems intrigued now!]

Modern day Robin Hood?

[wellhanged]

... robbing the neighborhood can be accurate depending on the neighborhood.

[purrtagonist]

I was assuming since it was the ruling regent of your home country, it was definitely your neighborhood.

[vague notes of amusement in his words]

[wellhanged]

No way~ The Pit's the neighborhood of the knightly or unsightly cur types. I am a very sightly cur.

[purrtagonist]

[a pause]

[looks him up and down]

[???]

Aaaand where do the sightly curs live? The "ruff" area of town?

[no]

[wellhanged]

[heh.]

Ruffled, probably. Realistically, I'd rather avoid the Matron if I can--don't tell her I said that, though.

[a heavier weight at that.]

[purrtagonist]

[mimes zipping his mouth shut, locking it, and throwing away the key]

Your secret is safe with me.

[ironic thing to say in a game where they're supposed to share secrets but hey]

[wellhanged]

[officially winning ur way to being a confidant.]

Great! Now, I guess that we'll need slightly more weight.

[purrtagonist]

[bruh he knows how to play the shady adult game he's got this]

-- ah, right. . . it's my turn, isn't it?

[crap what can he share??]

[he can say he robbed a bank?? that's vague, but on point!!]

[. . . no he's still trying to pretend to be a totally normal and unassuming teenager with nothing special about him whatsoever]

[FUCK WHAT OTHER SECRETS DOES HE HAVE]

[a stone falls away from under his foot while he's contemplating, and he winds up leaping back to avoid tumbling into the abyss below]

. . . I once told a friend of mine that her new earrings looked great on her when they were actually pretty hideous!

[AKIRA]

[wellhanged]

... that sounds like something you should have been punched for.

Did she at least slap you?

[purrtagonist]

No, of course not. She never found out the truth.

[how dare you, Akira]

[bright side: another tiny weight is falling on the scales]

[wellhanged]

I should, in good consciousness, take action in her stead.

[and yet he's not moving at all and maintains that kind of smiling with a half-hearted shrug]

Let's see... I told a friend he couldn't tell anyone that I was still alive because they wouldn't believe him, but the reality is that I didn't want him to tell them because they would.

[ha... that gets a weightier one.]

[purrtagonist]

[. . . huh. hmmmm. Akira arches a brow at that, and he can't help but comment lightly]

The more you talk, the more you sound like a vigilante.

[wellhanged]

That's quite a high title for the reality of it.

[purrtagonist]

Too romanticized?

[his mouth twitches into a knowing smile that vanishes in an instant, easy to miss for someone who might not be paying attention. but you're paying attention, aren't you Levi?]

At least I didn't use the term "phantom thief."

[wellhanged]

[he is, indeed.

and he gives a huff of a laugh.]

Hardly a phantom.

[purrtagonist]

The phantom part is figurative, anyway.

[dips his fingers into his pocket, glancing at the ground to check their progress]

I'm running out of secrets. . .

[wellhanged]

Then I suppose, as someone with memories, it's my responsibility.

[hmmmm... what to say...]

When I was a child, the parents of the current regent had a program of gathering children up in markets to cut them apart and sell their meat to the hungry things in the dark--including themselves. When I was older, I worked to tear those markets apart.

[a bigger sized weight appears. still not very large, since... he doesn't consider it much of a secret, really.]

[purrtagonist]

[yeah okay, good feeling from all of that banter gone]

[Akira's expression immediately darkens with barely constrained shock, which swiftly melds into righteous fury]

-- what? Why?!

[wellhanged]

[blinks, surprised by the vehemence enough to forget to smile]

Because hungry things in the dark hunger and somehow hungry things became king and queen?

It only makes sense that they'd see us as cattle--though I doubt most people understand what actually was going on. Hungry things of the dark live in the forests or the mountains or the deep waters, not the palace.

[and yet...]

[purrtagonist]

[Angry Teenagers with Ideals, man]

[the vehemence only lasts for a moment, because Akira is pretty good at wrangling it under control. he sags backwards, lifting a hand to push his glasses further up his nose with a small tch]

And yet. . .

[. . .]

Were you the only one fighting to dismantle the monarchy?

[wellhanged]

Well, the current regent killed her parents, so...

You could say there was a lot going on.

But no, I wasn't alone. Madam--the Matron, that is--was a good patron to the cause. Though, of course, she also took in a number of the orphans for her own purposes.

[hmmm... but not wanting to get into that.]

Fingers also helped. Fingers is a good friend to a number of folk, really.

[purrtagonist]

[. . . . . .]

You seem awfully open about something that's better kept in the shadows.

[tilts his head, genuinely curious]

Is that only because of the trial?