sixthiteration | Test Drive (December & January)

→ 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 NETWORK 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

SNOW BLIND - It's snowing, a lot, and pristine landscape though it might create, it also brings plenty of problems, especially when you live in an Edwardian-style village with a serious lack of snow shovels. It's currently blizzard conditions and visibility is nil — Maybe you gave in and ducked into the nearest house for temporary shelter, and discover someone else had the same idea (or just lives there, oops). Maybe you're stubborn enough to still be out in it, struggling against the wind and snow. Or maybe you've tromped into the South Village Inn like a human popsicle, and are just hoping you don't lose any fingers before you make it to the fireplace.

JUMPED-UP - Winter's here, which means it's the perfect time for an expedition to warmer, southern climes. You've joined a group following the river all the way down to the far southern beach, for fun and for science. On this latest break in your journey, you've spotted a large, jewel-colored feather and picked it up, maybe as a specimen to bring back or just a feather for your cap. Turns out it's an archaeopteryx feather, and you're now, well... let's call it a little gravity-challenged. Not a bad benefit once you figure out how to control it.

COLD CALL - The snow has slacked off, leaving behind a winter wonderland. Sure, there's plenty to do, but after being cooped up inside for days, most people won't blame you for a morale-booster — That is, unless your way of starting a snowball fight is to pop up and throw them at unsuspecting passers-by. Making a snow man or snow angels might come with a little less retribution, but you do you.

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

Network

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

- Text and/or video, any length
- 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

He's not sure how long it's been for Foggy, but for Frank it's been the better part of two years since the case. Maybe some carrot-noses can't make up for how he acted then, but he doesn't really have anything else to offer the man at the moment so it will have to do. He nods to acknowledge the thank you, waiting for Foggy to take the carrots before approaching each snowman and affixing coal for eyes and little smiles. He even pulls out a handcarved pipe for one lucky ice mound.

For their part, both dogs are very interested in Foggy, Aretha still drawing tracks with her nose and circling closer and closer while Aloe butts his heavy head into the man's arm to try and get him to play. Frank finds his lips twitching up despite himself at the animals' antics, only intervening when he thinks Foggy is past his capacity for canine attention. At that point, Frank will whistle sharply, two fingers in his mouth, before reaching down to pack a snowball and pitching it well away from their scene, growing more populated by the moment. The dogs predictably run off, searching for the snowball in layers of the stuff - that will keep them busy a while, he knows from experience.

It's been... a while. Long enough that he isn't scared, not enough that it's all forgotten.

Frank's intentions for the snowmen are far kinder than Foggy's, but he doesn't have the heart to start changing things while Frank's there. He's had enough horror in his life to inflict snowman horror on him as well. Maybe he can make a nice snowman family instead.

"You seem to have found more dogs," he comments eventually. "Though I guess in this place they'd be a good asset as well as good pets, huh?"

The question gets another nod. He's always finding some stray or another to take in, animals... people, it's all the same. Frank might be even more taciturn than Foggy remembers him, and it takes a few beats for him to decide to speak aloud, pointing to the bloodhound first, then the pit as he talks briefly.

"She's good for the hunt, and he's... cute." Frank wrinkles his nose. The pitbull's training hadn't gone nearly as smoothly, but he was a good companion. That's what counts at the end of the day, maybe.

Cute... was not the word Foggy would use, but he just nods agreeably because he's not going to argue with Frank about what is cute and what isn't. Especially when the thing in question is one of his pets. "Fair enough. Do you just have the two of them?"

Making conversation is just a thing he does.

The thing is: he wants to make an effort. He hasn't had the easiest time since coming here, and certainly not before, but even now he's aware that he owes Foggy. He should probably keep giving back by keeping himself scarce instead, but so far things are going alright - at least Foggy isn't outright disgusted by Frank sharing his clean Winter air. It's enough for him, reaching down to idly rub Aloe's head when he finally returns from his futile search. Aretha is still more interested in Foggy and the snowmen than her dad for the moment.

"Uh. No..." Well, the only two dogs, yes, but Frank has a vertible brood. It takes a moment before he's listing them, but luckily Foggy caught the one subject he doesn't mind talking about. "We've got one of them croc-dogs, he hates the cold. I can take him out in my coat, but he gets salty about it. Then there's the cat, she doesn't leave the house in the Winter either. And there's a zalpaca and one of those cow-things. Oh, and a sheep."

Edited 2018-11-29 05:59 (UTC)

Frank has done nothing to earn Foggy's disgust. He's a frightening man and a terrifying reminder of what Matt could become, but Foggy also understand that he's a terribly damaged human being. And still better than some of the scum Foggy's represented.

"Wow, you're starting your own petting zoo over there. I haven't seen most of the native animals, heard a bit, but not seen. They good for produce? Milk and wool and such? Or are they purely pets?" Animals is a safe topic. Everyone with a soul likes animals.

Frank really wouldn't know the difference if it bit him, short of Foggy saying as much to him, which he would never hold his breath for. There are more than a few differences in the man before him from the one he once represented, though they might not be immediately apparent. He has a ward, for one thing, a sixteen-almost-seventeen-going-on-forty-seven know-it-all-superhero of a ward, but a ward just the same. Frank had grown quite attached to Kamala after his last jaunt around the multiverse, something he's pretty open about when you can get him talking. Despite his relatively well-known status in the villages, however, no one other than the obvious seems to have gleaned just who exactly he is yet. It's something that suits him fine when he isn't sure if he'll ever identify as The Punisher again. He doesn't think he'll ever have cause to in this place, at the very least, unless they finally get to meet up with their alleged Observers.

"It's both," Frank answers, a little belated. That's the other thing that's different other than his hair: his once booming, confident voice has been replaced by an almost demure whisper. It's still just as gruff, like glassy ashphalt, but the volume is so low it can scarcely be heard over the icy wind. "Let me know if you need anything, we've got more than we know what to do with." Green milk and butter from the groffle, creamy cheese and purple wool from the zalpaca, and of course more normal wool from the sheep. Frank was good at survival and had made it his business to make sure everyone who cared to be was prepared for Winter. Foggy would be no exception.

Foggy can pick differences, but right now, he doesn't feel like poking at that bee's nest. Affability can be just a veneer and he doesn't want to give Frank any reason to feel uncomfortable or threatened. Even if Foggy is as threatening as a bunny.

"Both works just fine. And a cat will keep down pests, no doubt. Hate to think what feeding and housing the lot of them would be like."

"I'm not really a cat person," he admits, taking a look at their snowmen and thinking of his kids. Building snowmen and igloos, being out for hours until his wife was screaming at the lot of them to come inside before they froze. He meets Foggy's gaze steadily, something he was never able to do in that courtroom, and shrugs one shoulder. "They grow on you."

It's a lot to manage but between Kam and himself, the household runs smoothly. Not to mention becoming an outright survival hub for anyone who might need it.

"Especially when people leave and they don't have anyone else." As was the case with all his animals, at least the ones who lived indoors. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know he has a soft spot for orphans.

"Yeah... I got that sort of feeling about you." Most military types weren't cat people in his experience. Cats were too free spirited.

But Frank meets his gaze and Foggy... gives him a warm, if tentative smile. Because giving a smile is free and can warm someone up a bit.

"So you sort of inherited your cat, then?"

Oh. The smile isn't unwelcome, not at all actually, though it does surprise Frank some. He bites into his lip but then he's smiling too, a fleeting thing that twitches up his lips a fraction. Then he ducks his head and it's gone, but the easy mirth sticks around even when he looks up again.

"Yeah, you could say that. Croc-dog belonged to the same guy. I dunno where Aloe came from, and Aretha..." There's no real delicate way to explain it, and he wonders if Foggy got the whole lo-down on this place yet. He's a smart guy, surely he's figured a good deal out himself. "She belonged to another me. The first Frank that came here." Nevermind, it never gets less weird.

"..." Foggy stares for a few moments, then nods and gets over it. "Fair enough. Why not? My real life involves aliens, super powers and people coming back from the dead, anything here is just not as weird as actually being here."

His blind best friend is a vigilante ninja. This is less shocking somehow.

He laughs, actually laughs. It's brief, but warm, and he shakes his head after while presenting Foggy with his favored OK symbol between thumb and forefinger.

"Now you're gettin' it."

And it makes Foggy grin, because he's naturally a sunny person. "Yeah, I'm starting to get it. Might as well make the most of it."

You might think naturally sunny people would be like water to Frank Castle's grumpy oil, but it seems to be doing something for him. He's not quite as hesitant and serious as he seemed when he first rolled up.

"Had enough of the cold yet? I've got coffee." And when all else fails, he's really good at bribery.

"Aw, it's not that bad, yet. And there's something reassuring about it, like, even if everything else is weird and strange, this? Is like home." Snow and making snowmen. Being cold and not minding. The lack of power and everything else was something he could forget out here.

"... mind you, coffee..."

He nods. He gets it, obviously.

"Nothing's stopping us from coming back out after." Okay, so maybe this coffee is more for him than you, Foggy.

"Oooh, right, in your place." That is a little more intimidating, but Foggy nods anyway. "Sure thing."

It's second-nature to invite people over, he doesn't even think that might be weird until Foggy's repeating it back to him. He's preparing for the rejection when instead comes an easy acceptance. Okay...? This whole meet has been more than a little surreal, but Frank isn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He nods, snapping once to get the dogs' attention before signing Home. They seem to get the idea, snuffling along the trail they can somehow find even under a foot of snow. There isn't too much ground to cover from the park back to good ol' House Six, at least not on a usual day. The weather drags it out some.

"You found a place to stay yet?"

Frank is frightening, but he's a known frightening and Foggy is fairly confident that even a less calm Frank Castle would never attack him, because he's a non-combatant by pretty much any definition.

Foggy ambles along with Frank, dusting off his gloves.

"Not yet. I'm talking to Matt later, and I know I can always stay with Karen if I'm not sure what to do."

Attack him? Hell no. Protect him with his life? Any day. It isn't that he thinks Foggy is stupid, he doesn't. It's just his low opinion of himself coupled with the hurtful things Matt said to him when he first arrived here that have him on edge. He's stayed away until now, but it's been on his mind. Not just because he owes Foggy but because he wants him to do well.

"Karen's at the Inn," Frank says, only to realize that's dumb. Foggy knows that, but he doesn't know the rest. He doesn't think anyway. "Matt and Elektra took her old house... across the street from me." It's like a bad joke, now that he hears it aloud. He's also wondering if Kamala is home, that will be an interesting reveal unto itself.

Foggy doesn't say anything for a bit. His face twists a little at the mention of Elektra, because that situation is complicated and ugly and Foggy doesn't want to have to pick up the pieces yet again.

"So I guess that's an on again thing." Which also means he won't rely on Matt to help him adjust. "I'll probably stay a couple of nights with Karen while I find my feet and get settled somewhere."

And Matt didn't tell him about Elektra. Frank is getting the distinct feeling like he just stepped in something he shouldn't have. This is why not talking is far superior to the alternative.

"That's a good plan. There are plenty of empty houses, you just might wanna stay close to the middle of town." So he can make sure Foggy is safe goes unsaid, naturally. "At least for the Winter."

Not about the 'living together' bit.

"Yeah, maybe. I was thinking about throwing in with the butcher. My mother wanted me to be a butcher and my brother is. I have some skills." Right now, he doesn't really want to live near Matt and Elektra. "Course, my folks owned a hardware store. We were sort of DIY central."

Those are good skills, and he nods his approval. He had no way to know Foggy might be useful in this sort of situation, and at least he didn't come here half-dead and in need of Frank nursing him back to health like a certain mutual friend of theirs.

"Butcher's good. We do a lot of hunting around here." Which shouldn't surprise anyone. Frank isn't bad at breaking down meat, but he could always learn something, too. "How are you with a bow?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive (December & January)

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