sixthiteration | Test Drive 20 (August & September)

→ Holds and applications are always open. Holds are required for all applications.

→ Choose one of the scenarios below or make up your own. Feel free to try multiple scenarios.

→ Write LOGS or TEXT prompts, or both.

→ THERE ARE ONLY THREE RULES FOR THE TDM:

1. It has to take place in the 6I universe.
2. It cannot be the character's arrival into the game.
3. Please only test new characters who do not have a version in the game. Our cast list is here.

→ TDM threads cannot be used to meet AC, but if the character is accepted into the game and both players agree, you may keep the CR.

→ Character want ads are here.

Prompts

Happy anniversary, villagers! Buckle up!

HEAT WAVE - Poor you. All you were trying to do was get yourself a little something to eat from the kitchen at the inn. Maybe you cooked it up yourself (The inn does, after all, have an electric stove — FANCY!), or maybe you just grabbed some leftovers. By accident or on purpose, you ended up with way more RED SALT in there than you maybe should have, and this is no ordinary seasoning. Whether you like things eye-wateringly spicy or not, it's August, you're sweating buckets, and it's only getting worse.

SKUNK DRUNK - Isn't that just the way? You're out and about, minding your own business, and you get sprayed by a BROWN SKUNK. The good news? It doesn't stink like a normal skunk. The also possibly good news, depending on who you ask? You're now in for about 5 hours of being very, very friendly. (Just remember to keep the test drive PG!)

BRAIN CANDY - Whether you made it to the anniversary party or not, you've gotten your hands on a piece of leftover candy from the big bash. Careful, though, these treats are more than meets the eye: Whatever COLOR it was, you've now taken on the associated personality traits. (Not the power, just the traits.) At least it only lasts 10 minutes.

WILDCARD - Choose your own adventure. Maybe play powers roulette.

Texts

All characters are fitted with a smart watch-like device on their left wrist, which they can use to send text messages to other villagers.

- Texts may only be 140 characters long
- No video or voice, text only
- Display names may be changed by characters on the fly, but anyone can tap to see someone's real full name

Please list your CHARACTER NAME, CANON & PROMPT in your SUBJECT LINE.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[This guy looks tense. Or is he? Alec can't tell anymore. It's been so long since he's had to read human facial expressions outside of Constantine or, well, business. He shakes his head and another twig snaps. The price you pay for being 8 feet tall and weighing...what do I weigh?

He hates being without his powers. Peering through the leaves for a moment there's a pair of dark red eyes.

It pulls back instantly, clearly afraid.]

Okay, there's definitely something in there. Maybe it's a someone? If it is, they're hella tall, and probably not something he'd recognize as human, especially with eyes like that. But his weirdly high-key disaster sense doesn't seem to be tingling, and he's come to rely on that probably more than he should. And anyway, there's that curiosity to contend with, isn't there? He's never been able to resist poking things with sticks, so to speak.

So he slowly lowers his hand away from his belt knife, instead lifting both hands slightly into the air in the universal sign of good intentions, or at least neutral ones. "Hey--it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I was just looking for mushrooms." He knows woodlands like this, even if they aren't his woods; there's always plenty to eat, even if you aren't hunting, which he isn't for the moment.

"Are you okay in there?"

Hnngh - Alec frowns. He knows where they are and he can help. Once he fails to see any fire or fire making tools he makes a decision. Come on out. Maybe people won't light you on fire?

"...I'm all right." His voice sounds like rocks rubbing together before being run over with river water, like wood growing, "...I'll come out but you have to promise me you won't scream."

Wow. That is one heck of a voice. The hairs on the back of his neck are prickling, but it's not fear or danger that's giving him goosebumps, it's just... the sound of that voice. It doesn't sound like the kind of voice that should be speaking words, or like...English words, specifically. Of course, that's probably why the voice is saying words like 'don't scream.'

There's only a brief second of pausing as 10K considers. Honestly, he's probably seen worse, whatever this guy thinks he's got going on. There's nothing more terrifying than a Blaster at six feet staring you in the eyeballs, nothing more gruesome than what was left of that guy at the lab in Colorado. He can probably handle it. "I don't really scream easy," he calls back, sounding perfectly reasonable, if a little dubious. "I mean, I've seen some stuff. You can come out. I'm not gonna hurt you."

He's spent most of his time here freaking out about how different he looks, but between Asch and the rest - maybe he doesn't need to worry. This is the big test He straightens, This is the big big test.

The thing that steps out of the bushes isn't human and it's big - 8 feet tall and 4 and a half feet wide big. Made up of peat moss and roots, occasionally dripping plants and leaves. Dressed in those same red scrubs that have seen better days, he's clearly a new arrival. Standing up, the thing tilts it's head and offers a wave, "Hello."

This is what his predecessor went through. This learning how to be a monster, before he joined the green. Realized his power. Maybe this is a good thing.

"Thank you for not screaming."

Whoa.

10K doesn't scream, but his eyes are huge enough that the possibility of them falling out of his head does seem pretty distinct. It's just, after everything he's seen, after the zombies and the Blasters and Roswell and the zunami, he thought he'd seen it all. He should have known better, after getting here. He's seen enough minor weirdness to prepare for the major ones. But a giant walking, talking plant-man is...yeah, that's different.

"Hi--?"

The plant-man lifts a hand in greeting, and his wave in response is automatic, a little mechanical as he looks up into that face with its red eyes. 10K's not short, a solid six feet, but he's a gangly kid barely out of his teens, somehow managing to make his teal scrubs look ill-fitting despite being the right size, and definitely nothing compared to....whatever this is. Whoever. It's a person. They're a person. Don't be rude, he thinks, and the voice is his mother's. So he swallows, trying for words again.

"Uh, no problem. Probably. I mean--uh, I'm sorry if I bothered you. Coming through here. I didn't know anyone else was out here.

"It's fine." He frowns, "It's...not bad at all actually. You're not the first person I've seen out here. Or...the first I've interacted with."

He can tell the boy is...nervous? Anxious? It's the eyes. He's used to that look. He glances around, "More people should come out here. It's beautiful. I just try to avoid them."

Because...obvious reasons.

"You're not lost are you?"

Blinking. Right, that's a thing. 10K forces himself to blink, to look around as the other....guy?...does. He's not wrong. It is beautiful out here, and honestly it seems like the two of them have that in common, at least. It's something, enough to take the edge off.

"Nah, not lost," he says with a shake of his head. "I just like it out here. Reminds me of where I grew up, some." He pauses a moment, runs a hand through hair already a mess. "Honestly I'm still not used to being around that many people." Here a motion of his head back in the direction of the town. "It's easier. Being out here."

That he can relate to, "...That's part of why I'm out here." He gestures at the world beside them, "I'm- I feel better out here. It's good to see someone who understands that."

He pauses, "Surely though....You miss...human companionship?"

The words are enough to make him smile, a crooked expression that isn't quite a laugh. Human companionship, that sounds more like the kind of thing something that looks like this guy should be saying, in Lord of the Rings or something. But the truth is, he's not so sure what human means these days, or what it's worth. How do you define what's human? Cassandra has been human, and then she'd been...whatever Murphy made her. Murphy--10K's pretty sure he'd never been human at all, even if he walked and talked like one, or maybe he'd been too human. Sometimes he'd wondered if he still was, or if he was a ghost, and a hand subconsciously lifts to his abdomen and the scar under his shirt left by a bullet.

"Companionship, sure, I guess" he says finally, shrugging. "I miss my friends, back home. The people I was traveling with. But I dunno if human's got much to do with it, these days. I mean, pretty much anything is better than a zombie, but human..." He shrugs again. "I don't know. Guess I'll find out. What's your name?"

He understands that. Losing his humanity totally made him realize that it's subjective. You can be the most human looking person in the world, you can have a wife and children, but you can do the most inhumane things. The reverse, being something large and angry, being a monster...

His mind drifts to Abby and he buries it, focusing on the boy with intense pain in his eyes. Thinking about Abby will lead him down a road he will never recover from. Especially here.

"That's not to say, you're not welcome out here. I just thought I was...alone. I'm glad I'm not.'

He offers a hand twice the size of the boy's, "Holland. Alec Holland. The last person...being to be talking about human companionship I guess."

His laugh sounds like an earthquake, a rumbling deep in his chest.

"...I've been avoiding the settlement. Worried people might overreact if they see me."

It's another very human gesture, offering his hand like that, and paired with the very normal name, 10K barely thinks about it before offering his own hand. Still no tingle from the danger sense, after all, and this guy's stuck here like the rest of them, judging by his scrubs. He should be friendly.

"I'm Ten Thousand," he says, shaking Alec's hand. "My friends call me 10K." It's the kind of name that implies a story behind it, not that it matters much, here. "Guess I can't blame you. People don't always do real well with different. I mean--I guess that's never bothered me too much. And you aren't trying to eat me, so that's always reassuring." It's only half a joke. The last guy he'd seen that looked anything at all like this one was trying to eat them all, starting with Murphy. That guy hadn't started out a plant, either, and the question pops out before he can quite stop it.

"I'm not trying to pry, Mr. Holland, but--I mean, that's a pretty normal name, and you talk pretty normal, too. Did you always look like that, or...?"

"10k." It's not what he expected, the kid looks like a Tim or a Richard. Especially when the boy is being kind, "Don't worry. You're not a nice cool loamy soil. If you were we'd be-"

He's trying to be funny.

Then he asks and Alec stares at his hands.

"No. I didn't always look like this. I was born a human being. I was a scientist. Then I made a bunch of mistakes, met some nasty assholes and...here I am. A person trying to be the best plant they can be."

He wasn't always 10K. He'd had a perfectly normal name, once, had been a perfectly normal boy. But that was when he'd had a normal world, and a normal dad, and a mostly normal life. Nowadays, that isn't a thing you take for granted. He tries not to think too much about it, it's easier to stay in the present, but maybe it's just always normal, when you live one way long enough. Maybe this'll be normal someday.

But for now, it's actually--if not normal, then not surprising, exactly, to hear Alec's answer. 10K takes a minute to choose his words, lifting a hand to his head and looking a bit like he's reaching for something that isn't there anymore, like a pair of glasses or a hat. "I guess that's--not all that weird for a scientist. I mean, most of the ones I've met are kinda...similar. At least you aren't blaming anyone else for what happened to you. For your mistakes, I mean. You could hate other people." He wouldn't exactly blame him, really. Especially if they treat Alec the way he thinks they do.

He shrugs, "Why? Human beings can't help being the way they are." He's seen so much of humanity by now that he just gets sad, "People just...disappoint me."

He shrugs, "Were you looking for something out here? I could help you find it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive 20 (August & September)

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