Test Drive Meme #1

[fernwehmods]

Welcome to Fernweh's Test Drive Meme! Do you have an interest in joining the game? Need to make sure the setting works for you and your character first? Or have you made the decision to join the game and need fresh samples for your application? Whatever the reason, feel free to use the scenarios however you wish.

You know what to do! If you don’t, just follow the instructions.

How To Play:

→ Comment with the character you would like to test drive (duplicates are allowed)
→ Choose a scenario or start your own
→ Tag around
→ Have fun!

SCENARIOS

01. Arrival

You have been sitting and staring at the sign above you for some time now, lost in a blur of swirling questions that seems to start with how you ended up there; in a place (and time, maybe) that you know you weren't an hour earlier. Or maybe you're an old hand at this by now and you've figured out that this is simply another stop that the multiverse bus has made. So why not get off and look around a little?

At any rate, the sign points you towards the direction of a place called "Gazin", which looks like a decent-sized town from where you stand. There has to be someone who can explain.

02. Around Town

So, you've settled in. Well, mostly. At least you know where things are without taking too many wrong turns and ending up in the less desirable areas of town. But now you can go about your day. Visit the market, check out the local shops or have a drink with a new friend at one of several inns.

03. Exploring

You've heard people talk about some pretty interesting places and now you're itching to get out and find them. Be careful though, there are creatures and monsters out there that will be pretty interested in meeting you and may wish to have you for its next meal. Better take someone along. And maybe some weapons, too. Make sure one is made of silver.

04. Monsters

So, you managed to find that location you were looking for. Good for you! Only.. it seems you've also found one of the native creatures to the area and you now face to face with it. Um. Good luck! We'll see you when you get back!

Hopefully.

05. Celebration

It won't take long for you to figure out that people of Gazin are, all in all, pretty happy people. It shows, too, when a seemingly quiet evening suddenly bursts into a random, impromptu party to celebrate whatever good fortune has touched a person. Name Days, good harvests, betrothals, weddings, or just life in general.

Sing, dance, drink and be happy, too!

06. Wild Card!

Want something else? Feel free to choose your own adventure or mix and match to create something completely different!

NAVIGATION

Comments

Wen Qing | The Untamed | OTA

[radishlobbyist]

[ finally figured out the canon point I want, so here we go with top levelling! ]

02 Around Town

If there is one thing that can be said about Wen Qing, then that she is restless. For all that the woman is young, her manner of dealing with people is brusque and curt, the manner of one who has no time to waste on fools, for of course she doesn't with her brother left behind imprisoned by their own Wen sect while she was whisked away.

She has found work at the apothecary, and does seem to take joy in the work and in learning about the healing properties of foreign plants and substances. When she isn't working in the pharmacy, she can be found carrying around her medical bag, visiting the poorest who can't afford any other healers.

But wherever she goes, there is always one thing on her mind, one question she asks. "How do I get back?" or "I need to return home, have you ever heard of a place called Qishan?" She searches out maps and spends long evenings in the seediest taverns, hoping to run into adventurers who have traveled farther than the rest of the people here.

03 Exploring

Fairly often, her explorations take her to the places deemed most dangerous for unwary travelers, for if there are answers to be found, surely it must be there? She carries a sword when she goes out, and fighting needles tucked into the sleeve of her arm.

It may be careless to go alone, but she has her pride, and she won't ask anyone for help.

3

[themerlin]

And as she wends her way into the more dangerous areas, she might find a tall, older, and yet quite fit man who walks with a staff shining.

"Pardon me, miss, but do you head outward?" He waves a hand toward the woods, his voice warm and rich.

[radishlobbyist]

She halts and sizes up the man, taking in his physique and the staff he carries, trying to figure out how much of a threat he may be if he turns out to be one. It never hurts to be prepared.

"I do," she agrees, letting her eyes stray to the road ahead of her again. "I arrived only recently and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about this area."

[themerlin]

"I feel much the same. Will you allow this simple traveler to walk with you? It is perhaps true that there is greater safety in numbers."

He waits for her answer, coming no closer, and simply grins at her. Merlin is an odd man, and has a lot of patience.

[radishlobbyist]

It's a very polite question and she can sense no threat, so after a moment she nods, her face still solemn in the face of his smile.

"I would enjoy your company, and the safety in numbers it provides." She feels for the small pouch at her belt, which holds her fighting needles. "How do you fight? Is the staff a weapon? You don't seem like a man who needs a walking stick."

[themerlin]

Merlin nods at her answer, and approaches, moving so he is even with her, and thus taking one half of the road to view, one half of the risk of the unknown. As she speaks, he smiles.

"I do use the staff, yes, but ion addition, I fight with hands, and with a few tricks I know."

He taps the staff on the ground, and the runes previously invisible light up a little, glowing with a soft blue light for a moment before fading.

[radishlobbyist]

Her eyes sharpen in interest as she watches the runes become visible on the staff, sensing power in them though it is a kind of power she isn't familiar with. There is so much to learn in this place, every new day only shows her how little she knows about the world.

"At home, we also use weapons which are more than they appear at first glance."

She tucks into the small pouch and brings out a number of needles, a little larger and thicker than the acupuncture needles she used for medical treatments. "Here, I throw these." Which she would prefer even if she had her sword but still.

[themerlin]

He smiles as he peers at them and then nods. "Very nice! Excellent work, whoever made, them, also. I would not want to be hit by one." He scritches his chin.

"Makes me want to get behind a forge again."

02

[morethanatrickster]

Loki is no stranger to appearing in strange places, to be honest, when he'd first arrived here, he'd thought he'd gone precisely where their beliefs had dictated: Valhalla, the land of noble death, but alas, he'd been mistaken. He was hard at work, most days, trying to understand this new world and it's foreign magicks, but today he's perusing the market stalls for new goods, a cartographer's stall having been his latest stop, when Wen Qing addresses him.

"I'm afraid the name slips my mind, and as of yet, I've found no means of return." He looks over, apologetic, at least for all appearances. "So sorry."

Re: 02

[radishlobbyist]

The cartographer's stall happens to be a place she frequents often as well, though she has yet to be anything but disappointed as for finding a way home.

She nods firmly, face solemn at the answer the man gives her. "I'm afraid I had expected as much," mostly due to him not looking like someone from their lands, "but I have to keep trying anyway." She pauses, remembering her manners, and bows to him, hands crossed in front of her.

"I am Wen Qing of the Qishan Wen."

[morethanatrickster]

Loki had fewer reasons to continue looking for a way home, but that was a long story with many twists and turns that tended to paint him in something of a negative light, which was counter-productive to his gathering allies in a new place. Instead, he chose to play the part of a fellow lost soul, pining for a way out.

He nodded in sympathy, smiling amicably at her introduction. "I'm sure if we work together we can find a way." He inclines his head in greeting as well. "Well met, Wen Qing. I am Loki of Asgard." Her appearance and name reminded Loki of the fallen, a friend more of his brother's than his: Hogan. A mighty warrior who was both loyal and honorable. He wondered if her people were similar. "I take it the maps have left you less than satisfied as well?"

[radishlobbyist]

Fair enough, she is also keeping some important facts to herself. Such as that to anyone back home, her Wen sect is the side in the war that is massacring their way through their lands, seeking to destroy everyone who won't bend to their conquest. You can't pick your family and she isn't eager to be hated once again for her last name.

"I have never heard of a place named Asgard," she admits, her perfect posture faltering a little with a tiny dejected slump of her shoulders. Even if one glance into his face had made clear he isn't from her lands, it would have been nice to run into people from lands she has at least seen on maps before.

She straightens again, there is no time to mope. "The maps have proven useless to me. Nothing that mentions places which are familiar to me, and not even any places of power which might be worth checking out. I have thought of simply choosing one direction and traveling in it until I come across something familiar but this place seems to bring in people with many different kinds of techniques and knowledge. It seems more likely to find the answer here than stumbling through the woods."

around town

[inwhite]

The question isn't asked of Xiao Xingchen directly, but he can't help overhearing when she asks someone else. He turns in the direction of her voice, but she's already on the move again.

"Maiden?"

He presses his lips together after calling out to her. Xiao Xingchen starts moving through the crowds, listening for her voice again, trying to pick up the scent of herbs that he noticed before. Hopefully he can catch up with her before too long.

Re: around town

[radishlobbyist]

She moves across the market some more, haggling over the price of pickles and beef and other ordinary things, but quickly catches on to being followed. Her steps slow, a hand slipping down to the pouch at her belt where she keeps her needles these days, since the local peasant's dress she wears these days doesn't have the same wide sleeves as her robes did.

She halts, turning around, determined eyes on the crowd and waits.

[inwhite]

He's lost her. That's his assumption at first, the sound of her voice and footsteps vanished before he could pinpoint them. Ironically, Xiao Xingchen comes to a halt just a few feet away. He stands out a bit more than most of the crowd, still in his white robes with his sword and horsetail whisk across his back.

He lingers for a moment before stepping up to the nearest vendor.

"The lady that you were just speaking to, have you seen her in the market often?"

[radishlobbyist]

Oh. She feels more than a little bit stupid realizing that her pursuer must be blind, and has completely missed her bracing herself for a confrontation.

Wen Qing approaches, making sure to walk loudly, and clears her throat. "I believe I am the one you wished to speak to. Although I don't know why."

[inwhite]

Ah, there she is again. Xiao Xingchen hears it from the first step, but then her voice speaks up beside him. She's found him before he could find her.

"Forgive me for following you. My intentions aren't to do you any harm. I just heard you mention a place from my world, and I wondered if it was truly the same."

[radishlobbyist]

So, finally someone from home. She doesn't relax her stance at this, though she does bow to him. Even if he can't see it, politeness must still be observed.

"It likely is, I haven't yet met anyone who knows of the lands at home without being from the same world as I." Yet now that she is faced with a stranger from her world, she feels a measure of anxiety, of reluctance to reveal herself.

She may have become rather fond of people not condemning her as soon as they hear her last name.

[inwhite]

"I'm Xiao Xingchen." He introduces himself with a bow in return. "I was wondering if maybe you'd crossed paths with another girl from our world, a young maiden who's blind like myself."

His companion had tried to discourage him of having such hopes, claiming that A-Qing had finally gotten tired of them and wandered off on her own again. Xiao Xingchen couldn't really blame her if she did. She was probably able to steal more than he could provide. She was a clever girl, but still. He worries.

As for her last name, she'll find no judgment in him. He didn't take part in any of the clans' drama, nor did he care which bloodline a person was from.

3

[achickenformylove]

She wasn't the only one heading out of the village to see what else there was here. There was a certain other cultivator here, dressed in white almost funeral robes.

He paused when he saw her. Unlike others, he had seen the Wens at the Burial Mounds when WuXian had brought him back there. He understood that not all of Qishan Wen were considered threats. He'd be a hypocrite of the highest order if he did.

Still, he wanted to confirm his suspicion she was who he thought she was.

"Maiden Wen?"

Re: 3

[radishlobbyist]

Meanwhile Wen Qing's most recent memories of Lan Wangji were of the sects' heirs being forced to study under Wen Chao, a time period which she doesn't like to think about for her own reluctance to help as wrongs happened around her.

She halted as well at the voice which wasn't quite familiar right away, but one she placed at the first glance at him. He was a man hard to forget, after all.

"Hanguang-Jun," she said, face unable to hide her surprise. "I did not realize you are here, too." She stepped towards him, a little uncertain if he would treat her as friend or foe now with the Sunshot Campaign underway.

[achickenformylove]

"Study". Yeah, that's what that had been. Not hostage-taking and using them for bait for a giant turtle...

He was surprised to see her as well. She had long since been dead in their world, but here she was, walking around with everyone else. It was not what he was expecting, but other than the slightest hint of surprise on his face, there was no other emotion and certainly not anger towards her.

As she stepped closer, he did give a slight nod in her direction, a subtle bow. "Only recently it seems. I was not expecting to see you here."

[radishlobbyist]

She greetedd him with a proper deep bow, as befitting someone of his status.

"Are you going night hunting?" she blurted out. "I have not gone out with the intention of hunting the creatures in this forest, only to explore, but many of them sound very strange and foreign from the descriptions I have heard." She was eager to study the medical properties ingredients taken from them had, to be honest.

But this was not the time for that, she reminded herself, schooling her face back into a placidly polite expression. "I don't know from when you come, and I understand we are on different sides of the war in my time, but I hope we will be able to co-exist in peace here. I don't wish to bring our war to this peaceful place."

[achickenformylove]

“I was not intending to go out hunting, but if I should come across one who proves threatening, I will.”

He had heard about the creatures and the area around them, so he was curious. It wouldn’t do go out and not have any idea about the area, especially if they were still having to figure out how to get home. For now, this was home and he didn’t intend to be taken by surprise. Once WuXian’s wounds had healed, they should be able to go out and scout the area properly.

He looked at her with his normal calm expression. Beneath the surface, he was far more curious. The war was decades ago, a time when he had not known what had happened to WuXian and then began to lose him to whatever had taken hold of him. But he had also seen more, WuXian’s dedication to try and save a small group of Qishan Wen survivors, including Wen Qing. He had seen for himself that they weren’t a threat.

“There is no ill-blood between us.”

[radishlobbyist]

She gave a courteous nod and just a hint of a bow in acknowledgment, though the relief she felt was so much greater than the response she let on.

"I'm glad," she said, "I have always respected Hanguang-jun and I would not like for us to be enemies." She regarded him pensively. He looked older and certainly not younger than when she had last seen him, so he must be from the future and know of the destruction Cloud Recesses had suffered. Maybe he was from far enough in the future that the pain of it had eased.

"All I want from this place is to be left in peace so I can research a way home." She met his eyes, her face showing her urgency. "I need to return the soonest I can. If you hear of a way, or come across anything... I would forever be in your debt."