[meme] test drive

[citycouncil]

A bit late. Sorry, folks!

Tag into this post with characters you're thinking of apping to the game (characters who are not currently in-game or currently reserved by someone else). It can be just a tag, a brief EP, whatever you want. You can be new to the game, or simply want to test out a fresh pup. Tag each other with these characters or those already in game, and have fun.

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[youmayquoteme]

[ Unaffected by the flat tone, Elwood brightly explains, ] Should you call me, call me at this number, not that one; that one's the old one.

Now I must say, your posture suggests you're feeling very relaxed, young man!

[only_good_teacher]

Tom's seen a lot of students in his day with nervous, hurried speech. This woman knocks them all out of the park. Still, his expression is calm and patient.

"I imagine you're feeling more than a little lost," he begins, offering a reassuring smile. "That's understandable and, perhaps unfortunately, normal. I'm Tom. This city is Darrow, it's, ah... I hesitate to say 'magic'? But that's about as close to the truth as any of us have been able to figure out."

[awolflikealion]

[ Ruslan's expression falls slightly. He'd like to be helpful. He has a general inclination to being helpful, and, though he remembers very little of his childhood, he knows it's what his original pack would have expected of him. But he can't help. ]

I'm sorry, Mi— Elwood. I don't know this place at all either. Oh, but could you describe your friend? Maybe I can help spot him. I'm good at finding things. Maybe even here.

[roadside_rose]

Through no choice of mine, the other ghost says, and Rose thinks: shit. She's been trapped before — drawn into an abandoned truck stop like a moth to a flame and locked in a Seal of Solomon — but she's yet to find any telltale arcane marks here. And while the twilight has plenty of ghost towns that would happily ensnare more residents for themselves, this is the daylight. A daylight town shouldn't be able to hold any ghost with enough sense to recognize that they're being held in the first place.

But Norah here seems sensible. And it sounds like she's been stuck here for a while.

"I'm Rose." Despite her own impatience for details, she does manage a wry smile over the unnecessary clarification. "And... yeah, I figured." Nothing wrong with being a little translucent if you're not the kind of ghost that regularly passes itself off as the living, but it's not exactly subtle. "Can't say I know what kind of ghost you are," she adds, figuring she might as well lay a few cards on the table. It doesn't seem likely that another ghost is the mastermind behind whatever the hell is going on here, and one of the first rules the twilight teaches you is that lies are for the living, not the dead. "I'm a hitcher, so I know you're not a road ghost, but that doesn't narrow it down much."

[youmayquoteme]

Oh you'd, you'd know him, if you saw him. [ Elwood smiles knowingly. ] You— you really can't miss him. [ He grins, now, fond delight in his eyes. ] His name's Harvey, and he's a pooka.

[awolflikealion]

A wh— a pooka?

[ Ruslan's brow furrows as he visibly racks his brain for the word. The way the man says it, it seems like something he ought to know. ]

Maybe they don't have that where I'm from.

[roadside_rose]

"I do," Rose says, an easy admission. "I used to fix them up after school, or over the summer — when I had the time." Which wasn't always. She'd grown up poor, and tinkering with cars was more of an indulgence than anything anyone in Buckley was prepared to pay her for. She'd had to turn to more appropriately feminine chores if she wanted to earn money.

[off_tempo]

"Right. Okay." She nods once, quickly, her expression scrunched up tightly as she tries to sort through the questions clamoring around her head. "Feeling lost, yes. More than a little. But that's normal. Kind of. Where I came from. Things go wrong, you know, people get lost, sometimes you never find them again. But this..." She looks around at the unfamiliar city, the noise of it all. "This is where I ended up. And you were expecting that, which means..." What does it mean.

She looks back at Tom. "This place. Darrow, you said. It's where people end up. There's some kind of draw here, like the magic is sort of funneling in. Or is it active? A spell cast on purpose- that would take so much energy. Where's it coming from?"

She blinks. Tom's staring at her. "Who's 'us'?" she asks a bit sheepishly.

[off_tempo]

[That's a lot of information. She stares at the card again, at the number indicated. She doesn't understand how to use these to 'call' anyone. An unfamiliar magic system? She wants to ask, but he's already moving on.]

Oh! Um! I don't think so? That is, I don't think I know anyone named Harvey. [She looks around as if to be sure.] What do they look like?

[echokeeper]

Rose's matter-of-fact acknowledgment earns a wry, somewhat relieved smirk which all too quickly shifts into an expression of dull bewilderment as Norah finds herself bombarded with details and questions she could not have anticipated. How she detests finding herself on the back foot in such matters, for how often it seems to happen.

"What kind...?" she blurts rather stupidly. "I was not aware there were different kinds, but then, I suppose I haven't met very many others. I am the ghost of myself. I have a haunting place but I am now free to leave it if I wish. Does that help?" She tries to temper her tone between mildly arch indignation and genuine curiosity, one eyebrow raised.

[only_good_teacher]

He can't help but feel a little impressed by how quickly Bellara has made the connection that he'd been preparing to dance his way towards. She's answered her own question neatly, but it's led her to ask a question he can't answer.

He settles for answering the one that he can.

"'Us' is people like you and me, who've found our way here from our own places and times," he says, trying to remember how Daniel had explained it to him, the very first time they'd met. "We're not all from the same places, but somehow, we've all ended up here. For some of us, that's been a tremendous improvement to our lives." There's a brief, sheepish look of his own as he worries he gives too much of himself away, before he adds, "but there are others of us who spend the entire time they're here looking for a way out. And so far, there doesn't seem to be one." He can at least be genuinely sympathetic towards those who want to leave and can't. Darrow has been, more than likely, a lifesaver for Tom, but that doesn't mean everyone loves it.

[youmayquoteme]

Oh, that seems unlikely. But pookas are very playful, and it's likely that any you would've seen are, are playing hide-and-go-seek with you. [ Elwood smiles, like he's letting Ruslan in on a joke. ] Y'see, Harvey, he, he's been my best friend for quite some time, now. Oh, I'm sure he'll be along. In the meantime, can I interest you in a martini? I know a wonderful bar, place called Charlie's, I'd love to sit awhile with you.

[youmayquoteme]

[ Elwood gives Miss Lutare a knowing smile. ] Oh you'd– you'd know him if you saw him, I should think. I'm sure he'll be along, he's, he's probably off exploring. Y'see, Harvey, he just loves to see new places and meet new people. [ A bit more wistfully: ] We have that in common, he and I. [ He seems to clear his thoughts and looks at Bellara, returning his full attention to her. ] Miss Lutare, might I invite you for a martini? I hate to see you stand, and I know of this wonderful bar not so far away; I'd be– I'd be just delighted if you'd join me and tell me about the adventures that led you here today.

[awolflikealion]

[ It's a very odd but intriguing description. Ruslan cocks his head to the side, pondering it, and the brief, extremely absurd question of whether Tahel might be a pooka. ]

Oh, I'm not old enough to drink. [ Factually untrue, but technically he is in high school. ] But I could sit a while and chat, sure.

[fulcrum3]

[eyebrow, and hands, raised]

Is that like a killdroid?

[secunit238776431]

[Performance Reliability, 87%]

I am designed to provide security for humans and augmented humans.

[fulcrum3]

Ah. Security.

[After the Clone Wars, killdroids were rebranded as "Security Droids", which was a way for the Republic Empire to promise to never make them again while continuing to make them. This one doesn't seem like it's been jailbroken.]

Well, I'm glad to hear it.

[Since Cassian was currently unaccompanied by anyone he'd have to protect that fell outside the range of 'Human to augmented Human', whatever the latter meant.]

What is your purpose here?

[secunit238776431]

My purpose here is my purpose everywhere: providing security for humans and augmented humans.

Though I would prefer to be watching media.

[fulcrum3]

Right, right.

[a slight smile at the comment about media. So there is an individuality to be found here. Cassian wasn't sure if trying to bring it out was the right play… except, after Kaytoo, that had become his approach to all such beings.]

Aren't you curious how you came to be here?

[secunit238776431]

I am contracted to provide security and transported to a new location before being activated. It is likely that this has occurred.

[fulcrum3]

Okay. Well… welcome to Darrow.

[Next move must be to see what, if any, direction the droid bot went in, the conversation or physically, itself]

[secunit238776431]

[[OOC: Gotta change tag styles, sorry. Still figuring out how to play a Murderbot.]]

The human seemed to want something from me, but he wasn't clearly in need of assistance. It almost reminded me of the way Mensah and her team tried to be my friend - ugh.

"Thank you," I replied flatly. I wasn't familiar with this planet and had no entry for it in my databases, but I could see limited technology around me and could not ping a satellite for media. Perhaps it was a non Corporate entity.

"Are you native to this planet?"

[fulcrum3]

[ooc: Fine by me!]

"No, I'm not," said Cassian. "I was transported here too. A lot of people were. We don't know for what purpose." He instinctively put his hands to his belt: an open stance.

[secunit238776431]

His body language was unthreatening and his heartbeat was regular. Whoever he was, he believed what he said. It made no sense, but he believed it.

"What are the risk levels of this planet?" I didn't expect him to be able to define them the way I would have been able to if I had a complete survey package, but I didn't. Knowing what he considered to be a risk might also be useful. Humans weren't always logical in their risk assessment, though.

[fulcrum3]

Cassian automatically wondered what the risk levels were to the planet from a self-proclaimed 'murderbot'. Humans were a small minority of a planet's life-forms, even if so far seemed the only sapient ones.

"There's a welcome packet waiting for you at the train station," said Cassian, remembering how he'd been helped on arrival like this. "I can take you there. It might have that information for you."

As far as he was concerned, the biggest threat was from the City making him or Jyn disappear again as easily as they'd appeared. But he wasn't going to try to quantify that for this bot, who definitely meant something different.