Test Drive Meme #1

[vivalamods]

TEST DRIVE #1

The day begins as any other, you’re going about your day, living your life, when, without warning, you feel the world around you shift on its axis. You feel a great tear, welling from the depths of your soul as you are ripped from all you have known. If you’re lucky, you arrive in the wilderness of an unfamiliar world, where the language is foreign and the people are hostile. To make your escape, you must learn some language, flee, and occasionally fight, all to find your way off the floating isles you find yourself on and to the great ocean below, where rebel forces will welcome you.

If you’re unlucky, you materialize within a room full of armed guards and are quickly subdued with charged nets, stripped of your belongings, fitted with strange devices that suppress your powers and pressed into servitude. Your days are unimaginable pain and toil.

Fortunately, even in this world, there is still hope. For the denizens of this world have not given up. And it is for that dream of salvation that the Crimson Corsairs raise their flags and sail - for liberation. Perhaps you are one who has lived their entire life under the oppressive yoke of the Empire. Perhaps you have seen first hand your family and friends cut down by nobles hunting men for sport, or perhaps you have run afoul with the church and barely escaped with your life. No matter your origin, the Corsairs sail for you, for your freedom, for your life. And today, a taste of freedom will be won for all.


ARRIVAL/LIBERATION
This month, the Crimson Corsairs raided a Larendt labor camp in order to obtain much-needed parts and textiles as well as liberate another batch of servants for the cause. The raid was executed under the cover of night, with one team sweeping the dormitories and gathering as many servants as they could while the other team hit factories as they could, focusing on taking important items like ship parts and clothing, loading them into prepared trams and fleeing before the guard could mobilize. The operation, thankfully, went off without a hitch, and the Corsairs were able to usher a number of servants into their waiting ships.

As dawn breaks, the raiding fleet docks at Flotsam as the city-fleet begins the long journey away from the continent before a retaliation fleet can be mobilized. The former servants are finally let above deck. The sun is beating down hard on them, its brilliance marking their first step into freedom.

Corsairs on the fleet will have a lot to do - the new arrivals will need to be sorted, clothed, and fed. Many are emaciated from the conditions in the labor camp, and the former servants will be immediately ushered to a mess hall for their first meal as free folk. Corsairs will be needed to organize the movement, prepare and serve the food, and also just sit with them and talk to them, helping them adjust and filling them in on the situation.

Former servants will have found the entire process exhausting to say the least. They were awoken in the dead of night by heavily armed people quickly moving through, shattering their chains and ushering them into ships. The entire night was spent sailing, and while the hull is dark it is crowded and difficult to sleep in. Finally, upon arrival they are ushered into a meal hall and served a humble meal - but a meal that far exceeds anything that was ever served at the servant’s table. What is known is that they are now free.


MEANWHILE IN THE WATERLOGGED ROW…

With another successful mission under their belt and their duties more or less complete, the triumphant Corsairs observe a time-honored tradition: heading to the Waterlogged Row and getting absolutely shitfaced on awful grog.

The mood is jubilant and self-congratulatory, with drinking songs ringing out across Flotsam. In consideration to other residents, the Row is currently moored a good distance from the residential areas to keep the celebrations from disturbing what little peace there is in the chaotic town that is Flotsam. But for those who participated in the mission, tonight is about celebration. Singing, storytelling, socializing, this is the glue that holds the operations team together. And as the Crimson Corsairs do not officially recognize a drinking age, everyone is welcome! Even if they probably shouldn’t be!

New arrivals are, of course, not at all restricted so those who finish their meal and go exploring will quickly find the Row, as well as many Corsairs eager to buy them a pint to toast their newfound freedom.


MAKING THE GOOD STUFF

Elysium often serves as the crux of Corsair operations, and the next operation is no different. While the operations team is carousing and toasting their success, the planning team is hard at work preparing for the next mission.

The order of the day is gathering, which has brought the team to the forests outside of Elysium. In the coming month, Elysium will host a lavish party for the guards of a certain continent, and it is the duty of the gatherers to ensure that any drink served is “enhanced”, with such potency that they won’t be in any position to do their duty when the raiders strike.

Any herbology specialists will be absolutely vital for this operation. While the Corsairs have some documents and know, generally, what they’re looking for, there are a wide variety of things that grow within the forest, many of which can be quite dangerous.

Those new to gathering will really need to watch their step. Elysium is rich in hallucinogens, and a whiff of the wrong flower or mushroom could leave them contemplating their navel for the next hour. Tasting is out of the question, but what they don’t know can’t hurt them right? After all, the Elysium workers spend a lot of time eradicating poisoned growths to keep wandering nobles safe so anything they find can’t be THAT bad. Right?

And of course, for experienced foragers, they will find an entirely new duty thrust upon them - keeping the newbies in line. Really, how can they expect anything productive to be done when they send a bunch of green recruits into a forest full of hallucinogens?


EDUCATION AS THE BOMBS FALL

New Corsairs almost always find themselves in the Vault. Nestled in the earth and subject to the constant pounding of munitions overhead, the Vault is the repository of knowledge for the Crimson Corsairs and the place where new inductees are educated. Language instruction, education on the world and its people, writing, reading, arithmetic, just about any kind of learning can be done in the Vault’s halls.

Notable about the Vault’s education is how deeply tied it is to the Crimson Corsair’s broader philosophy - everyone’s unique talents and insight have value. As such, Corsairs are often called to the Vault to share their specialized expertise. While many Corsairs do choose to become full-time teachers, any Corsair can come and teach a class.

For the new Corsairs, now is a time to learn and train, acclimate themselves to their situation and figure out where they want to go from here. For established Corsairs, this is an opportunity to meet the new recruits and help train them so they can help with the cause. Those who might be students today will be comrades standing at your side tomorrow, so teach them well.


DANGER AT SEA

As the most mobile of the Corsair’s settlements and the only obvious Imperial target, Flotsam is well equipped to deal with any number of dangers. One such danger is the enormous sea monsters who dwell within the Eternal Ocean. While many are not too keen to tangle with such a large fleet, occasionally a monster will become angry or territorial enough to try to attack the fleet.

And it is for that reason that the Corsairs now find themselves battling a massive sea serpent that has stretched itself across the western edge of the fleet. New Corsairs aren’t expected to assist in this battle, but as the sinking of Flotsam would be VERY BAD for those who are currently trying to live on it, many will jump in anyway, especially as they should have been issued weapons. As to established Corsairs, well, you know the drill by now. Monster bad, try to sink ship, let’s convince it that there are easier marks than the pride of the Corsair fleet.

Some Corsairs will need to man the cannons to blow it away, but many will get up close and personal, jumping into melee range to drive it away from the ships and mitigate as much damage as they can. Others still will provide support from the back with magic or ranged weaponry, and still others will need to weave their way in between the battle to carry out wounded Corsairs for medical attention. Whatever your specialty, your city needs you. Best get to work.


WILDCARD

Have an idea for your own prompt? Feel free to make any prompt that you think would fit!

OOC
Welcome to the first Test-Drive Meme for Viva La! All threads here may be considered canon once characters have entered the game. Threads here are eligible for use as a roleplay sample for applications, which will open on the 15th of June at midnight.

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Comments

Marcille Donato | Dungeon Meshi | AU

[fuckthatdragon]

-1: Arrival/Liberation-

If she was going to help the Corsairs, healing the injured after a battle seemed like a pretty straight fowards way to do so. She wasn't a professional healer, but she knew a bit of healing magic and figured people would prefer a half trained medic to bleeding to death.

That was the theory, anyway.

In reality, as Marcille moved from patient to patient she found that people were starting to recoil from her offers of aid. Maybe it was because the people she HAD healed were now writhing on the ground in agony while groaning and shrieking about the pain. She figured it might be wise to reassure he next victim patient. Who happened to be you.

"Oh don't worry about them, it's just a bit of backlash to healing magic. It's natural for forcing the body back into it's natural shape to hurt a bit, just as it hurt to break it out of it's natural shape."

She held her hands out, an aura of friendly and entirely unintentional menace radiating outwards. "Anyway, where are you hurt? I'm not a healing specialist, but I know enough to get you back on your feet, at least! You still have both your feet, right?"

-2: Watterlogged Row-

Marcille was all about celebrating a victory with a good meal and maybe a glass of wine if she was feeling fancy.

Acknowledging that her current lodgings couldn't be expected to live up to her lodgings from when she lived in the empire, she was willing to put up with ale instead of wine, but she drew the line at seafood.

She poked at the lobster broiled in butter and garlic with a horrified look on her face. "There is NO way I'm eating this! Don't we have any real food?"

-3: Magic 101-

"Now, I don't know how magic worked where you came from, but you won't make much progress without understanding the fundamental principles of how it works here on Esthere. Don't worry, it's not too complicated..."

Some time later, Marcille stood in front of a blackboard that was covered in intricate formulae that used at least three different alphabets. She had spent the duration of her class blasting information like a firehose aimed at a teacup with little concern about if anyone was keeping up with her. She kept on assuring that everything would be clear in a moment.

Are you a genius at magical theory? If not, it probably is not clear. That didn't stop Marcille from underlining a particularly complex looking formula before turning to her class and beaming.

"-which is why as long as you keep Abenthy's theorem of sympathetic connection, all magical theory should be simple to work out with nothing but a bit of time and scratch paper! Any questions?"

-999: Wildcard!-

Or just make your own up! I'll roll with it!

2, these are real emergency rations

[tisfinished]

The dwarven man offering Marcelle a plate shrugs and shakes his head. “Nothing fresh, or that isn’t intended for emergencies. I doubt you’d prefer hardtack and dried suet soup.”

“I recommend squeezing out the lime over it -“ he demonstrates with his own lobster tail - “putting it on the roll and pouring the butter sauce over.”

[fuckthatdragon]

“Hardtack…”

Marcille had tried the bland, hard, crumbly bread yesterday, and had not been impressed with it. She had assumed living at sea would be hard, but clearly she had underestimated just how hard.

“Wasn’t the hardtack going moldy already? There’s GOT to be something real to eat! Don’t we have any chicken? Or some kind of salad, maybe! I know it’s important to eat vegetables at sea or you’ll get scurvy!”

Her voice took on a whining edge as she complained, but her stomach and nose were waging their own campaign of rebellion against her brain just as she was rebelling against the Empire.

Despite the fact that it was essentially just a giant bug from the sea, she had to admit that the lobster actually did smell REALLY good. Could it actually be worth eating, maybe?

[tisfinished]

“Chicken’s too valuable for eggs to slaughter for meat. We’ve greens and pickles aplenty, and citrus for scurvy, but your body needs protein too.”

Senshi takes a bite of his makeshift lobster roll, closing his eyes as he chews to enjoy the contrast of sweet flesh with salted butter. Demonstrating that it is enjoyable?

Magic 101

[xenovore]

"Uh..."

Sitting at the back of the classroom is a tall, blonde man gawping at Marcille. Laios's reaction is, for once, in sync with the rest of the group. He'd done his best to listen, he really did! But there had been a lot of words, and not enough of Laios to brain them good.

But Ms. Dohmanto (was that the teacher's name? Laios had missed it earlier) had asked if there were any questions and by God Laios is trying to come up with something. Most of the lecture has gone over his head, but if he thinks back to what Falin told him about magic in the past...

Actually, most of what Falin told him went over his head too. But Laios tries anyway.

"So... Where's the part where you go 'bwah?'"

He remembers that bit from Falin's explanation.

[fuckthatdragon]

Marcille froze for a moment as he asked his question. There was something familiar about this guy. He almost looked like…

She shook her head. Focus on the lesson! After considering the question for a moment, she pointed to a section of the board covered with matrices of numbers.

“This part.” She declared, confidently.

[xenovore]

"Oh, huh," Laios said, not understanding but relieved anyway.

(In the background of this conversation, the other students were having suitably comedic reactions at first, the inanity of Laios's question, and second, the fact that Marcille actually answered it.)

Laios stared at the matrices for a bit. Numbers weren't exactly his forte- of course, he knew enough to be able to budget his finances, but complex equations weren't something he'd ever learned, or needed to. He wasn't the sibling that had gotten sent to an Imperial academy.

"I think I might need to start smaller..."

magic 101

[stophamatime]

Ken's a local, but he's got magical aspirations and hasn't gotten all that much in the way of training yet (being a kid will do that). He's been taking notes at high speed throughout the entire lecture, his attention on laser focus.

And honestly, he seems like he's mostly keeping up? He's definitely doing better than some of his classmates.

"Ah, sorry, was that second-to-last one a phi or a mu?"

[fuckthatdragon]

Marcille was clearly very knowledgeable about magic and ether, but she was not an experienced lecturer. She was trying to aim for beginners, but she made some wildly inaccurate assumptions about average familiarity.

After peering at the blackboard for a moment to figure out what he was talking about, Marcille reached over and erased it with her finger so it was more obvious what character it was.

"It's a psi, actually. Sorry, I guess I was writing a little bit too fast."

[stophamatime]

Oh! Okay. Psi, not phi. He diligently makes the adjustment to his notes.

...wait. WAIT.

That changes everything, and just when he thought he sort of had this! "But doesn't that...mess up the...um -" A moment as he flips back through his notes to remind himself what he's trying to say. "The evocation coefficient?"

3

[transrobotism]

[


RPK understands . . . about 2.6% more about how Ether works than she did earlier. ^maybe. ]

....May I use a calculator?

[fuckthatdragon]

[Blink blink]

A what?

[transrobotism]

[ do they not have those here. oh. fun. ]

I must have used a word wrong! Sorry, I'm still learning. May I use... [ think, RPK, think. it's analog, it's old as dirt, it's... ] ...A counting frame?

1. liberation

[nolo]

Despite his best efforts, Michinaga had all been dragged in front of the apparent healer. It might have had something to do with the fact that he was almost more bruise than skin at that point, but no one seemed to be impressed with the fact that he'd definitely had worse. Or maybe they just didn't understand him. He was up and walking on his own, it couldn't be that bad.

But whatever, if they wanted to waste time and resources on him, fine. Or not fine, apparently, as he took one look at the groaning bodies the blond woman was leaving in her wake and tuned in to realize she was reaching for him next. One rapid and almost instinctive dodge and he was very carefully putting himself out of range of her outstretched hands.

"Yeah no, I'm good thanks." The hell kind of healing was that? Far be it from Michinaga to run from a fight, but this had him genuinely considering it.

[fuckthatdragon]

Marcille blinked as he dodged out of his way, then followed his gaze over to her previous victims patients. She smiled reassuringly and waved his concern aside.

"Oh them? That's just a little bit of ordinary healing backlash. They'll be fine in a minute. It's only natural that it would hurt to force someone's body back into it's proper shape just as it hurt to force it OUT of it's proper shape!"

[nolo]

Oddly, that did not help his skepticism much. Especially not that smile. Michinaga had seen that kind of smile before and it never meant anything good. He could feel his own expression getting more and more incredulous as he made good and sure that there was still a fair amount of distance between them.

"Why the hell would you want a cure that makes you feel worse?" Temporary or not. Sure normal healing was a pain in the ass, but it generally didn't involve writhing around in agony. Not a hard choice to make. "You sure you're a healer?"

3

[divingthunderbird]

Marcus didn't really need to sit in on the class. An accomplished mage in his own right, he happened by the room Marcille was teaching in. And once he saw that... everything she'd written on the board he stopped dead, and walked in to observe the rest of the class.

Honestly? He was pretty impressed. But at the same time, he found himself puzzled at it too. And this was from someone trained by an archmage. ...Though Vensar's training was less dense on this level of academics. So the young man wasn't totally lost, but... he definitely wasn't with it all either.

Waiting quietly until after class had wrapped up, he afterward approached Marcille, his expression largely difficult to read.

"That was... quite an intensive lesson, Marcille. One I'd expect from a prodigious academy of magic." It's at once a sincere compliment and a critique.

[fuckthatdragon]

“Thank you!”

She took it as a compliment, oblivious to the undercurrent of criticism.

“If they’re going to be our future mages, then I figure I should go all out and hammer in the fundamentals rather than just showing them how to do individual spells as needed. Teach them properly!”

[divingthunderbird]

Well, her taking it solely as a compliment is better than her taking it solely as a slight, he figures. Still, not picking up what he meant by it does make things a little tougher. He held back a sigh, and straightened up his posture a little more.

"I think there's a lot of truth in what you were going for there. Starting with the basics is really important, and laying a good foundation is what builds a good house. I agree with the wisdom in that."

And he truly did. He couldn't actually disagree with her intentions!

"And goodness knows we need every able hand we can get. But, be that as it may? I feel as though what you were imparting was... too much to digest for someone who scarcely knows what magic is about. Like serving a whole feast for afternoon tea?"

Marcus shifted a little, visibly uncomfortable with what he was about to say.

"I confess, even I found it a little hard to follow."

[poormeowmeow]

"Marcille-!" Izutsumi yelps as soon as she spots the healer's face, her ears perking straight up. She's one of the unfortunates dragged out of that camp and plopped down to get looked at post-battle. She's mostly fine, honestly - a little malnourished and beat up after spending time laboring away.

But she definitely remembers Marcille. How could she not, considering the dungeon-diving they experienced?

"I know how healing magic works!" But she also remembers how uncomfortable it can be.

"I'm fine! Really!"

[fuckthatdragon]

Marcille perked up when she heard her name. She was here today as a medic, so someone must need healing.

The young beastwoman didn't really look injured, though. She looked like she had been stuck in an imperial work camp for a while, but that was something best cured with rest and food and maybe therapy more than healing magic.

The strange thing was the very familiar look she was giving her.

"Oh good," Marcille said, as she peered at her for a moment, tilting her head thoughtfully. "Do I...know you? Sorry, I'm usually pretty good with names and faces but I'm drawing a blank."

[poormeowmeow]

Izutsumi blinks slowly and then her ears flatten out a little.

That... was not the response she expected from her. She's more than a little confused, honestly. As far as she was concerned, she'd been talking to Marcille not more than a few weeks ago. And now?

"What's the matter with you? Did you hit your head or something?" She replies snappishly, "It's Izutsumi!"

2

[desashin]

[ The fare in the Row might be underwhelming, but it's food and Ace has definitely been left with worse since being captured by the Empire. Even poor ale and modest dishes are better than nothing, and lobster actually should be a delicacy in his mind. He grins mostly at Marcille's reaction, putting off any eating himself just to take in her rejection of the meal. ]

Real? What's not real about it? It's on a plate in front of you.

[fuckthatdragon]

[She pokes at the lobster with her fork, looking repulsed. The fact of the matter was that in the Empire where she had grown up, seafood was what desperate outcasts and criminals eat. REAL people ate people food. Give her a steak or a salad any day over this!]

It's been soaking in seawater for it's whole life! Eating all the crap that falls out of the sky and digging through mud! There's NO way eating this can be hygenic! I know supplies are tight but I have to draw the line somewhere!

[desashin]

[ He watches her stare at the lobster with judgment, poking it with her fork like it might still be alive. Should he mention that in his world people would pay high prices to eat something like this? That might traumatize her even more. ]

Once you cook it, meat is all meat. You should try a bite and see if it tastes any different than dishes you've had before.

[ Of course it will. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? ]