Test Drive for August 2014 Apps

[highseasmods]

Welcome to your monthly Test Drive for high_seas! Here is where new players can test out their characters' voices, old players can try out new muses, and everyone can help each other get some threads for their applications! Feel free to use one of the prompts below, or come up with something on your own! Comment around, have fun, and remember that any CR formed here does not carry over to the game!

See you during the application round!

♦ So you're new to this world and have just woken up in the Town Square. How do you react? What do you do?

♦ You're lost at sea. Maybe you got separated from your crew. Or perhaps you're on an abandoned island. You need help!

♦ "Pirates off the starboard bow!" It's an enemy ship! Attack!!

♦ You and your crew are hanging out on your ship. Just another day at sea!

♦ "LAND, HO!" Hey look, a new island! How about you go explore it? Tell us what you find!

♦ Arrr, here be buried treasure, but not all that glitters is gold! Will ye be telling your mateys what ye found, or keeping it for yourselves?

Comments

[knightlydiary]

Host?

[His brow furrows as he considers his outfit. The adventurer who sold it to him (for a ridiculous amount of pg) had said it was the costume of a melodist, whatever that is. "Host" sounds far too mundane for a coat as exquisite as this.]

I have absolutely no idea what that is. If you'd care to elaborate...?

[He fishes out his journal from his satchel. (His journal, the one he's been carrying from world to world, not the latest book he's added to his collection.) It can't hurt to jot down some notes.]

[caster_blaster]

Guys with ridiculously coifed hair and overly showy outfits. They like to bilk lonely patrons out of cash at overpriced bars. Pretty popular in some of the snazzier colonies in the Hei Phong sector.

[knightlydiary]

[He pauses with his pen poised over the book and looks vaguely horrified. What a terrible thing.]

I can assure you I'm nothing of the sort! Believe me, I would never approach a lonely lady to get at her wallet. Why do something so vulgar when her heart is the true prize a man should be winning?

[He says it with a straight face (if you can call a self-satisfied little smirk a straight face) because he genuinely means it.]

[caster_blaster]

[To his credit, Gene listens to his little explanation...right before letting out a PFFFFFT! and laughing his head off.]

Oh please, who do you think you're talking to? That line might work back home, but not on Sentinel III. The chivalrous knight act went out of style centuries ago. Say that where I'm from, and you'll get laughed out of the bar!

[knightlydiary]

[His eyes grow shrewd for a moment. He's never heard of a place called "Sentinel III" or "Hei Phong." Some sort of military outpost? If it is, he should at least have heard the name before. Possibly this world is different not only from his, but from this young man's as well. A shame, then, because it sounds like there are legions of lovely young ladies in this Sentinel III place suffering from a dire lack of handsome, good-mannered gentlemen such as himself.]

I shall have to visit this place you're from sometime. It sounds like I could reel in quite a few --

[He coughs, cutting himself off. He needs to focus on the business at hand, not daydream about scores of lonely women, starved for a bit of chivalry in their lives, throwing themselves at his feet. No, he can do that later.]

That aside, no, I'm afraid I have no idea who I'm talking to. Neither one of us has taken the time to introduce ourselves. They call me Ringabel, by the way, and I've become quite attached to the name. And you are?

[caster_blaster]

...It was rhetorical, but alright. I suppose we should, after all. I'm Gene Starwind, of Starwind and Hawking. I'm kind of a big deal, back home.

[knightlydiary]

Is that so?

[Ringabel saved all of existence a few hours ago, but it would be a bit rude to bring that up now. This Gene fellow seems quite impressed with himself, after all.]

Some sort of merchant, then?

[That's what it sounds like, though Gene looks a bit scruffy for that. Unless it's one of those not-quite-above-board sorts of merchantries, which is entirely possible.]

[caster_blaster]

Eh, not so much. I guess you could say I'm a jack-of-all-trades, like most Outlaws in space.

Though most Outlaws haven't saved the galaxy from a massive threat. Even if I didn't get any actual proof of it, yet.

[knightlydiary]

[Ringabel starts an entry in his journal for "Gene Starwind the Outlaw." It may not be an Asterisk, but he can sort of hear that capital letter, so it's worth a few notes.

That second statement gives him pause, though.]

Don't count it saved until you have that proof, my friend.

[His whole demeanor immediately sobers. If their situations are in any way similar, it may explain how they've both found themselves in a place like this.]

Especially now that we've passed into another world.

[caster_blaster]

I've been to a lot of other worlds, though. This is actually pretty nice, all things considered. I just miss technology.

[knightlydiary]

I think you missed my point. If you saved your world, why are you here? What happened to the world you were in before? I know I for one shouldn't be here at all, yet here I am.

[Ringabel makes a few more notes and waits for the ink to dry before he puts his journal away.]

I had a destination in mind and this certainly isn't it.

[caster_blaster]

I got taken after all of that. Months after. I was just out on a job, got trashed in a bar, and woke up here.

I didn't plan for this either, but I figure it's just meant to be. Obviously this place needs Gene Starwind very badly.

[knightlydiary]

[That's...questionable. There are four Heroes of Light and the only one likely to be found in a questionable bar extolling his own virtues is currently eying Gene a bit skeptically.]

Somehow one half of that statement doesn't support the other half.

[caster_blaster]

Which part?

[knightlydiary]

Generally one doesn't find one's heroes, ahem, "trashed in a bar." It strikes me as a bit irresponsible.

[Gorging themselves at all you can eat dessert buffets, however? That's another story entirely.]

[caster_blaster]

[That certainly catches his attention. He leans back, giving a somewhat cheeky grin to him.]

...Oh, I get it. You're one of those kinda' guys. The holier-than-thous. Everybody likes a good drink now and then, pal. Some of us just like it more than others. It's got nothing to do with getting the job done.

[knightlydiary]

[He isn't entirely certain whether to be offended by that or not. After all, he's no longer the stick in the mud he once was. Still, there's a bit of a line to be drawn between "responsible hero behavior" and "things one might expect more of a degenerate vagrant" and drinking oneself into senselessness in a less than reputable establishment falls firmly into the latter category.]

I think I beg to differ, but that aside...

[That aside...what, exactly? Gene doesn't seem to know any more than he does about what's going on. In fact, he seems to know less. Ringabel sighs and crosses his arms. So much for intelligence gathering.]

[caster_blaster]

In any case, looks like we're gonna' have to learn to all get along. I hear we've got bigger issues to worry about than morality. We seem to be pirates, each one of us. Way I heard, local law enforcement doesn't care what we say we are, we're still pirates to them.

Makes me wish I had my grappler ship.

[knightlydiary]

Pirates?

[He visibly brightens at that. Pirates, eh? That's certainly an exciting and romantic sort of lifestyle! He mastered the related Asterisk, but he missed out on the "swashbuckling and derring-do" part.]

I'm no slouch at sailing, nor am I a stranger to being a bit on the wrong side of the law, so perhaps I could have a bit of success at being a pirate! Of course, a pirate captain is nothing without a valiant pirate crew...

[He taps his foot as he thinks that one over. He's going to have to find some allies. Lovely lady allies. An all-female (minus the captain, of course) pirate crew. Yes, exactly that.]

[caster_blaster]

I've never met such a thing. Pirates are kinda' bastards by their nature, from what I've seen.

[knightlydiary]

Your world seems like a sad, dismal place.

[Ringabel pats Gene's shoulder briskly to show the true depths of the pity in his heart. What a horrible place he must be from. He'll leave that off the list of possible worlds to end up in.]

Perhaps you should consider staying here. It seems like a nice enough place to settle down.

[caster_blaster]

Yeah, the thing about that is that I have responsibilities. You know, people who count on me?

[knightlydiary]

Yes, yes, I can understand that. I have places I need to be for the same reason. I'm going to catch quite the earful for wasting time here, I'm sure.

[He leaves out the part where he's sort of looking forward to it.]