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

"Others have done the same when they arrive." Some staying for days in the woods. If she were a different woman, raised away from luxury and excess, perhaps she would have felt safer there as well. But she was only herself and the city was what she was used to. The smell of shit, the press of people. It had been natural once. Now...it was hard to say where she felt at home.

Or if there was a home for her anywhere anymore.

She feels his eyes again. His were perhaps the most intense she had ever seen, not simply in color or vibrancy, but his use of them and how it felt like he piercing through her when he stared. It was almost like he could see her naked and vulnerable.

"Two years." She answered, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "There were others from my world as well during that time. Now it's only me. I think the Observers mean to keep me for some time."

His mother once told him that he had his fathers eyes, sometimes looking away when he stared at her for some such reason or another. Then there was Lagertha who told him he looked exactly as Ragnar did when he was young. He didn't care either way because he was his own man. But when he was younger, he looked up to his father and learned so much simply by watching him. And watching her was telling him some things, too.

Even before she all but confirmed her loneliness.

There were words he didn't quite understand, only translating by way of logic. Ubbe had learned about the different world, but wasn't too sure he believed that kind of magic possible. In Kattegat, people came from different lands all the time; some slaves from across great distances.

The term 'years' caused him to look back towards the fire uncertainly before shaking his head. "I do not how long that is." He looks back to her. "Why do you think they want to keep you here? Do you have something they want?"

Which was usually the way it went where he was from. Was she hiding something from them?

How did she begin to describe 'years?' After all of this time in the village, days stopped meaning very much. Each one was the same, the same chores and the same needs to see to. Years might mean something if there was more for her, aging or something else. But all of this ran together until she could no longer tell one day from the other, let alone one hour from the next.

She wasn't ashamed of her loneliness, only the vulnerability that it gave her. Once she enjoyed the openness that she had learned to share, thanks to the Starks' encouragement. But now, old habits were easier to keep and were far more comforting.

Though under his gaze, it seemed nearly impossible to keep a blank face.

"I don't know. I don't know why they choose any of us or why some are sent home and others aren't. We come and go randomly."

It's a question he's sure many, perhaps even all of the people there are interested to know - him included - and answers were not going to be given anytime soon. So Ubbe knew he'd be forced into biding his time, waiting for.. what? People that he knew to show up? That alone was beyond frustrating. He wanted to see his brothers, but having Ivar there would be interesting given what had been happening before he arrived.

He looked around, thinking about it before reaching over to grab another log.

"So what do you do to get through the days? Hunt, plant, grow and harvest and just wait?"

It didn't seem so bad to him, having been used to that kind of life. But not everyone was him or his brothers.

She knelt beside the fire, holding her hands out against the flame to feel the warmth. There was a flash of green before her eyes, jarring but common whenever she looked into the hearth. Her response was at least no longer as strong as it used to be. Now, there was only a shiver up her spine before the memory passed.

As strange as it was to have an unknown man in her home, it was comforting to have someone nearby. The house seemed too large and looming when she was on her own. At least now, there was someone else to focus on and talk to. However much she pretended she wanted solitude, she needed company.

"Essentially." She smiled softly. "I have animals that I care for, sheep, goats and cows. My garden has been harvested. I have a loom and a spinning wheel. That takes up the majority of my day."

Even though he hasn't been there as long as she has (or most of the others for that matter), Ubbe can't help but take comfort in having things to do that he would otherwise do on the land given to him by Alfred. The buildings are different, and the things inside them are mostly different. But he knows growing things and tending to animals and living simply.

Strange how that made him feel so close to his father.

Ubbe nodded, showing how he understood that. Yet, another question couldn't help but be asked.

"Do you not have a man to help you with these things?"

She had said it was only her from her world now. Margaery was a beautiful woman, surely one of the other men in the village saw that beauty, too.

She understood both meanings of this question. For however much she had withdrawn from her former habits, she knew the thoughts of men and what lay beneath the surface. It was as effortless as slipping on her gown, conforming herself to what they wished for her survival and progression for power.

Beyond that, it was a simple question. She couldn't know how women were viewed in his world, but it seemed that they still were expected to have aid and some support. She shrugged her shoulders, not taking offense to the notion. Life would have been simple if she had her brother or Robb with her, but she had managed just as well alone, no matter how her heart might have shifted.

"There were many from my world. A family that I was close to, two sisters, two brothers and their father. One by one, they were pulled away. My brother was here for a time but he left too soon. I had a lover briefly, but he is gone now as well. That is the way this world goes."

It didn't hurt to think or talk of Robb anymore. "It was easier when there was help, but I have always relied on myself more than anyone else."

"Hm," Ubbe nodded again slowly as he moved his arm to stoke the fire again. If he could choose any of his brothers to be there with him, it would be a hard choice, but it would Björn. Ivar would be far too much of a handful and for all he knew, Hvitserk would be, too, given all the time he had spent with their littlest brother. This place did not need that experience.

He turns his eyes to look at her again. "Where I come from, it is better that way. No betrayals. You just live for as long as you can. There must be a reason you are here and they are not."

The viking shrugged and looked back into the fire. "Perhaps there is someone that has not arrived yet that you are intended to meet."

Or maybe they had finally met just now. The Gods worked in mysterious ways, after all.

"I do not think that relying on myself has guaranteed my remaining, it only ensures that I continue even after they are gone." She had been beaten down, hurt and lonely, but each day she left her home and done what she needed to. She had seen the others and knew how some responded when they lost family or friends. Perhaps she should be grateful for her separation between feelings and motivation.

"If there is a reason, it might be to try and find some humor from my pain, but they are not the first to try and beat me down." She had survived worse, even in losing her life.

She smiled softly, surprised by the suggestion. "Perhaps? Robb was the first man I have ever loved. I never let myself before coming here. If there is someone to follow, that is for fate to decide, not me."

Oh, there was no doubt about that. It was always up to fate, no matter what and was the reason for everything happening in one's life. Even this place, as strange and impossible as it all seemed, though it was something to think about. Why did he come to this place? Some had said it could be between realms, much like Valhalla and Hel. Yet, for as simple as it all seemed, the sheer idea was unfathomable. Especially if he didn't die to be brought here.

Ubbe could feel the room warming nicely as he continued to stoke things and looked over to see how the woman beside him was.

"I cannot be sure if I have, but I do care very much for someone back in Wessex." he told her. "I married before that, but our marriage was not much of a marriage and the last time I saw her she had turned mad."

There was nothing more to say on the matter really.

"Are you still cold?"

"I'm sorry." It seemed like such a simple thing to say after that sort of confession. She wouldn't have understood before, but life here had granted her some form of experience with love. She couldn't imagine what it was to care for someone and have them go mad. All she had to relate was marrying a boy would had long ago gone mad (if that was what it could be called.)

She had barely noticed the change in the room's temperature, having been so focused on Ubbe and the things he said. She untied and hung up her cloak, already feeling the hem drying against the heat of the fire. "No, I'm not cold." Such a strange thing, given that it seemed she never could find a way to warm herself in winter.

"Wessex is where you are from?" She asked awkwardly, unsure what to even say to him.

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Test Drive (December & January)

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