Test Drive for February 2015 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

[divinerighttorule]

[The sigh she gave was, perhaps, a little much, but the exaggeration was surely warranted. The life had been far more difficult than she had ever anticipated.]

I am no stranger to battle, but such base accommodations are unusual.

I was with another crew for some time, to be sure my skills were adequate, before... personal differences... put us on separate paths.

Some in this place seem to think that titles from other worlds have no bearing on one's status in this world.

Naturally, I disagreed.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

I believe that myself, but I also believe that making people comfortable is important. Being able to hold onto pieces of your homeland can be very good, even if it's something as simple as a title. A little piece of home, no?

[After taking a few sips, he looks out of a porthole.]

Your tea is good. I look forward to the meal.

[divinerighttorule]

Some titles are meaningless, even in the world they're held.

[After all, she'd meant numerous monarchs who didn't deserve what they had. And she'd watched them all fall.]

But some of us...

[She sips her tea, smiles faintly -- though, more of a smirk -- and let a few flickers of blue flame flicker around her fingertips before it vanishes and she sips the further heated tea calmly.]

Have more than a title.

We have the right to that title.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

[He didn't believe anyone had the right to rule anything, but he was keeping that to himself for now. It'd be rude to his host.]

I find titles I have to work for are a bit more...satisfying, I suppose.

Though it seems you've a few tricks, yourself. You can fire-cast?

[divinerighttorule]

Firebend.

[The thought that she hasn't had to work for her title makes her smirk a bit more prominent.]

I've trained since I was a child. One has to be born a bender, but what one does with it...

That is where the true power lays.

[Her title as princess was, to her, much the same.]

[skyfaring_swordsman]

Sounds a lot like ki, where I'm from. All humans have it, to a degree, but only a dedicated few can use it offensively. It can augment one's power to quite the degree. It's a very versatile power. There's also magic, of course, but that's a whole other thing, which I understand little about.

[divinerighttorule]

There were four elements in my world, and benders come from those.

Both my brother and I were blessed with the ability to bend fire.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

The elements all belong to the magic side of things, for the most part. Most people require special tools to properly channel that sort of power. You seem to have very fine control of yours.

[Johnny removes one of his finger-gloves, concentrating for a moment before firing a small plume of energy out the window.]

There's the difference, where I'm from. Magic channels elements from nature, while ki is channeled from within. I haven't mastered it, but it does help me fight.

[divinerighttorule]

I've trained most of my life to do so.

[It's second nature to her, in a way. Her firebending is what she has, what sets her apart from everyone. Mind and body honed to be perfect at what she does.]

I wouldn't be fit to call myself a child of the Fire Lord if I didn't.

[But hearing it called magic... That's interesting.]

Ours is both. The element and power within.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

You should meet a man named Sol Badguy. This is nothing compared to the flame that man generates. He could burn a city to ashes, were his power to blaze out of control. Not a fun man to fight. So grumpy, all the time.

[divinerighttorule]

Anyone whose fire can burn outside their control is foolish in their use of the flames.

[Powerful but deadly. Something to be respected and contained.]

One of my father's generals was very powerful, but he had no self-control. A boy with barely tolerable skills bested him because of it.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

My style is more focused on speed and precision, than raw power.

[divinerighttorule]

You should hone every aspect, if you wish to win.

You must be faster than your opponent's strikes, stronger in your attack, more secure in your defense, and wasting no energy. Every blow much reach the best target at the right speed and in the correct order.

Mind and body must be one.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

A simple thing to say among men, but I've come up against opponents that are far beyond human. Gears are not so easy to over-power.

[divinerighttorule]

Or else you're not approaching them in the right way.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

I should hope that you never have to meet one, Princess.

Is the food almost ready?

[divinerighttorule]

Likely.

[She rises and goes to the small fire, removing the two skewered fish and putting them each on a plate before spooning out heated rice.

Serving doesn't come naturally to her, but she sets the plates down and takes her seat again.]

Are large machines unusual in your world, then?

[skyfaring_swordsman]

No, we have plenty of those, though not like the world once did. Several kind of machines mankind simply lost the information on. We're just sort of flying blind with some of it. We used to be able to travel the stars.

[And there he goes, chewing away on that food. After so long without, it's the best thing he's ever had.]

A triumph! Delicious.

[divinerighttorule]

My next endeavor is to find a proper cook.

[Because she shouldn't be making meals for herself. Still, one must make do in a new place such as this.]

[skyfaring_swordsman]

Leap did all of the cooking on my own ship, but I'd say I'm a fairly good one. Not a master, but I do well enough. You have to learn a few things, raising a whole ship full of young ladies.

[divinerighttorule]

A whole ship of young ladies? I may have to ask you to tell me more about that.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

[Why does everyone always get so curious about that? It seems perfectly logical, to him.]

Hm? Why would I have men on my fleet? All of the Jellyfish Pirates are girls who either volunteered to join or had no other place to go. Here, you can have a look.

[After fishing out his wallet, he shows her two different pictures.]

We had these taken on a vacation. It's not everyone on my crew, we'd need a much larger lens.

[divinerighttorule]

[Azula studies the pictures for some time, her expression difficult to read. A lot of young women, indeed. Still, it wasn't unusual for men to surround themselves with beautiful women.]

Interesting.

[Still, at least he's had a pirate crew before.]

Would you require a crew of only young women here?

[She smiles. Probably kidding. But. Well. It might not be. Hard to say with the way her lips quirk and her head tilts.]

I don't like competition.

[skyfaring_swordsman]

Those girls are my family, they'll always be the number one crew in my heart. That's in that world, though, and this is another.

[A short moment to sip more of his tea.]

I know how to compromise. It's your crew, after all. I'm not so presumptuous as to think I can decide who gets hired. What do you mean by competition, exactly? The way you carry yourself, I doubt you'll get many challenges for your position. Especially if you can fire-cast bigger than what you've shown.