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[uncanny_xmods]

( the test drive meme )

This is for anyone wanting to test out their characters in the setting before the applications open, see what clicks. Multiples will be allowed for this post, and you can generally assume any threads are a self-contained continuity unless you feel like getting creative.

Just post a thread with your CHARACTER NAME and CANON NAME in the title with a prompt and others will reply. Prompts and threads can be action spam or prose or whatever. These threads can be used on the sample section of your application, as well. Go out and have fun! Feel free to consult the institute tour and dorm guide for setting info. We also encourage you to check out the "!!event" tag on the IC comms to brush up on the story so far.

Comments

The Witch -- Brave | "Ms. Carver"

[bearablefate]

[Action]
Time to be quiet, sit down, and pay attention--or not pay attention, but at your own risk. Beginning Wood Shop is now in session, and like any sort of hands-on craft class that involves potentially dangerous tools and machines, the teacher is droning on about various safety precautions and warnings, allthewhile gesturing with an awl in hand.

The teacher herself is an ancient-looking old woman, hunched over to an unhealthy degree and hair resembling a snarled grey horizontal beehive. MS. CARVER is chalked in large, clean letters on the board. A raven sits perched atop a large bear carving in the corner of the room, observing the students.

Yes, it's a boring first lecture--even Ms. Carver thinks so--but a necessary one by the curriculum, and she wants to get through this as quickly as possible so everyone (herself included) can get to the fun stuff. "And that covers the manual tools. We'll go over the use of machine operations later in the course. I'll start you on your first project tomorrow; something simple, to show you the ropes. You'll have a choice between making a set of picture frames, or a pair of book-ends. Questions?"

[Action--later]
Or perhaps you're working on one of Ms. Carver's later assignments; a relief carving, a simple wooden puppet, or a figurine based on an animal of the student's choice. Ms. Carver herself is hobbling around the room doing a variety of things: she's answer questions, checking someone's project progress, cleaning up or sorting wood scraps, or taking a few moments to work on her own project. This week, it's an intricate 4' carving of a bear scaling a tree.

The raven, which by now every student should be aware is a mutant itself and is capable of speech, is hopping around on one of the windowsills, snapping an occasional corrective (or smartass) comment about some student's technique. A broom is roaming about all on its own, sweeping up piles of dust and fallen scraps, while a brush also floats about, dusting and cleaning unused surfaces. Made obvious early on, Ms. Carver's own talents lie in animation, particularly wooden objects.

[comparative_insanity]

Fai has been sent here on order of the guidance counselor, who suggested it might be good for him to do something where he could clearly see the results. The problem with this isn't that he's careless by nature - or well, he is, but that's not the only reason - so much as the fact that this kind of thing requires patience... and he only has a limited supply of that. So sooner or later he won't be quite as careful with one of those carving tools as he should, thinking that it will be faster this way, the tool will slip on the wood, and since he's holding his project in his hand rather than having it properly attached somewhere...

...well. Suddenly, there is a lot of blood. And of course he raises the hand with the centimeter-deep cut in it to try to catch his teacher's attention. "Ah, Ms Carver? I have a little problem here..." To say the least.

[bearablefate]

The classroom hawk raven saw Fai's slip the moment it happened, and started cawing and flapping up a storm. That initially earned the bird an irritated look, before the ancient lady followed her line of vision to--

"Oh!" Ms. Carver startles, blinking a bit before quickly setting down her tools, and hobbling over. The animated broom and brush cease what they're doing and dart over, pushing back a few students and keeping them out of the way. "You must be more careful, deary! I thought I mentioned that these are very sharp." She quickly looks over his hand, tapping her chin. "Put pressure on it and lift it over your head."

As the instructor waddles off, the raven, still making a fuss, flies over with a rag, and quips, "Good going, buster."

[comparative_insanity]

For a moment he's busy studying the cut in avid fascination, and then shakes his head and happily accepts the rag from the raven, starting to wrap his hand up.

"It really was very sharp. I mean, obviously I knew that, but I didn't expect it to cut so deep." He needs to stop sounding so fascinated about it, really. "But it's okay, really, I'm rather used to accidents. And this doesn't hurt too badly. And it's only my left hand, so it's not like I use it for anything important."

[bearablefate]

Overhead cabinets flap open and shut when Ms. Carver shuffles by, peering inside for something in particular. Eventually, one cabinet with a first-aid kit opens, and she makes a pleased Aha!.

The broom lightly swats at a student trying to get a better look, and the raven hops around. "Pay more attention! Caw! You're going to get us in trouble with administration!" She pecks sharply at Fai's uninjured hand.

Ms. Carver casually backhands the bird away as she shuffles up to the table, but... that's not the first-aid kit she has. She has two unlabeled jars, one full of a semi-opaque jelly-like greenish substance, and the other with round, bumpy dark brown things about the size of a marble. The lady opens the first jar, and it smells something like lilies.

"How out your hand, now."

[comparative_insanity]

He only giggles and draws his hand to himself as the raven pecks at it, not looking overly worried. The school's medical staff know who he is. He usually manages to get hurt somehow on a regular basis.

And now observe the boy giving those jars the skeptical look of any science-inclined youth faced with something that doesn't look very modern, but at the same time the curiosity of someone who really wants to know what that is for. And she's a teacher, right? Surely she wouldn't do anything unhygienic to his hand that would risk hurting it. So where's the harm? And so he gingerly holds out his hand toward her.

"Ah, what is that, exactly?"

[bearablefate]

Ms. Carver gave a big, mostly-toothless smile and laughed to herself, the ehehehehe sounding perhaps a tad too much like a cackle.

"Oh, it's just a little home remedy. The people I give it to have found it quite effective over the few decades." Decades? Other people?

The raven indignantly flutters to perch on her head as the teacher wipes excess blood away with the rag, then slathers a glop of the 'medicine' in the wound. It burned rather than stung. The old lady started unscrewing the cap of the second jar, and would be jamming one of odd, lumpy things in the student's month the instant he started to speak. This time, it smelled a lot like beached kelp.

Later~

[plantasmagoria]

Youmu loved the respite in her hectic days that Wood Shop offered. Frankly, it was the only class that didn't make her wrack her brain trying to listen in English or struggle with math light-years beyond what her rural education had taught her. She'd been chopping wood almost as long as she could remember, but she'd never considered it anything more than a chore. Now, only a few weeks in, class was over far too quickly if you asked her. She even impressed herself how much she'd taken to the craft; Each piece was getting increasingly meticulous and ambitious. She'd started bringing in interesting pieces of wood from her morning "practice" routine and liked to watch them dry in the kiln when she could. Something about the whole process put her at ease, it was like training or meditating or sword-making

Youmu shot up in her chair. "Ms. Carver, I've forgotten an important tool in my room." A second later, she was out the door like a flash. Moments after, she was back with two sheathed swords and a beaming smile. "I have a new idea for a project!"

[bearablefate]

Ms. Carver couldn't help laughing to herself, managing to waddle over to Youmu's seat by the time the girl returned. Youngsters these days were so energetic. Regardless, it brought a smile to Ms. Carver's face to seem one of her students so passionate about a subject she herself loved.

The teacher eyed the swords, but not with disapproval. She wasn't opposed to a little creativity. "And what would that idea be, lass?"

The raven, also intrigued, glided over and landed on her owner's head. "This oughta be good."

Later!

[osmanthian]

Kakyuu doesn't even bother with the machinery. She uses the knife, mallet and awl to carve a relief picture. Her time spent in the temple had allowed her to see how palm reliefs were made by the priests and their carvers, so she was attempting her own. It is supposed to be what her people called wiawe lōklōk. The prickly green skink.

...It looks like a giant rectangle with an antennae sticking out of it towards an imperfect circle. The script she tried to put on the bottom is lopsided and not at all at even height, like it was on the temple floors. She frowned. That didn't look right at all.