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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

[mindwiped]

[ Network ]
[ A nasally, throaty accent can be heard occasionally, but that's not the most noteworthy thing about the speaker—it's the scars marring his face, thick and wicked. ]

If anyone's seen a white puppy, let me know, s’il vous plaît. [ Well, that explains the accent. He ruffles his shaggy, bold hair, looking distraught. ] I know, we're not supposed to have pets in our dorms, but I couldn't leave her behind. I don't care if I get in trouble, I just want my friend back.

[ Action ]
[ The ridiculously tall and toned Frenchman knocks on the door of each dorm politely, apologizing profusely for the brother. Unable to tone down the accent due to being so flustered over the loss of his dog, it's hard to understand exactly what he's saying, aside from 'dog', 'lost' and 'please', over and over. ]

[hipsterbane]

If anyone seems like a lost puppy at the moment, it's the big guy, who's obviously pretty distraught if he's resorted to knocking on the staff doors. Next to that, Reki's wings and somewhat shabby vintage style seems positively normal.

"Hey, hey, calm down. I haven't seen him but i'd be glad to help you look for him. What's he look like?"

[mindwiped]

"She," Abel corrects, exhaling before continuing his ramble. "She's a Great Pyrenees mix, I think. All white. Really fluffy. But she won't come if you speak English. It has to be French. We're from Marseille."

Her wings, they look so fluffy, Abel has to bite down the urge the reach out and touch them. Instead, he settles for a sort of wide-eyed, slack-jawed excitement, swalling before he speaks again. "I'm Abel."

[hipsterbane]

"Reki. I don't know very much French, but i'll try...What's her name?"

As they walk she quietly sings an old song, something from before. Songs, languages, knowledge, she had everything from before seven years but her memories.

Abel's gawping didn't bother her. She was used to new students in a state of simalteneous excitement and trepidation.

[mindwiped]

"It's nice to meet you, Reki." That sounds Japanese. But Abel won't embarrass himself trying to replicate a curtsy, or however it is people greet others in Japan. It's been too long since the tournament there to trust his memories.

Which is nothing new.

Abel bites his lower lip, sheepish. "I haven't named her yet. We had to move here so fast, I haven't had the chance." Nor can he think of a name with only six years worth of memories. Seems pointless to name your best friend something as overused as Milou or Bisou. "I want the name to mean something...you know?"

[hipsterbane]

She thinks of all the other Haibane, and their names, from their dreams...Kana, who swims against the stiffest current, dreamy Nemu, free and boundlessly energetic Kuu, Hikari who's all sweetness and light, Rakka who fell to earth. Her eyes close for a moment in recollection.

"Yeah, it should. A name's very important."

She continues singing for the lost puppy. She's not too worried about it. She can always have Apollo track it down if they don't find it soon.

[mindwiped]

He smiles softly, happy that someone agrees. It's such a small thing, but when most people treat you like a freak, even minor acts of grace are welcomed.

The fate of his puppy goes to the back burner of his mind as he loses himself into the song, following the lyrics, realizing he's read them somewhere before. "It's a poem, isn't it? What you're singing."

"It's familiar. It's beautiful."

[hipsterbane]

She nodded. Even though he'd come to her all flustered, she found herself relaxing. He gave off the same aura of calm as Nemu, even though he was at least two of her in size.

"I think it is. It's just something I remember." She was surprised she'd never googled it before, to tell the truth. She knew she didn't speak French, so knowing it was all the odder. But then since she didn't know anything past around her fourteenth year anyway...

"How do you say 'come here, little one'?"

[byeontae_geomi]

Ah, so that's what I had for lunch.

Whoops.

[mindwiped]

[ Wrong answer.

Abel groans, covering his face with his hand. Anger starts to tint his sclera black, eyes shaking behind a curtain of fingers. He stumbles, trying to regain some composure before the unfortunate side-effect of his mutation completely overtake him. ] That's...not...funny...

[byeontae_geomi]

Aw, come on, big guy, it's a little funny. I mean, you know I wouldn't eat your dog.

[mindwiped]

No, I don't know that! [ He doesn't mean to sound like the surly child he is, but it's an uncomfortable feeling when all the color rushes to his vision at once, leaving his eyes so dry he has to blink repeatedly. ] Have you even seen her? Or are you here to make fun of me like you always do?

[byeontae_geomi]

Calm down, dickless wonderboy, I think I know where the little scamp got off to.

There's a spot where some of the Morlocks usually hang out and eat. I saw him around there, probably hoping for some handouts.

[mindwiped]

Dickless. Wonderboy. [ Idioms still give Abel trouble. As he repeats the terms, his eyebrows furrow in thought, the gears turning in his brain almost visible. ] Hey, I have one! [ A correction, not an challenge to what was said. ] Her. It's a girl dog.

[Action]

[jolie_aile]

Just a minute—[was that French she heard? It sounded like it. Or at least an accent of it]—un moment!

[There's the sound of something rattling and ringing about, like whoever was inside was wrestling with some kind of giant windchime. Eventually there's just a mutter, the windchime noises stop, the door opens, and—

—oh. Someone she actually had to look up to see all the way. At 5'10'', Flandre tended to make family gatherings awkward whenever her (shorter) older sister was involved. And his face, goodness.

So distracted was she by the scars that she didn't pick up much.]

—your dog...?

[Flandre assumed it was this strange fellow's dog. Or maybe a relative's, or a friend's.]

( Action )

[mindwiped]

[ Abel always hunches, both to give people an easier time and not to smack his forehead on the top of doors. But the way she's staring at his face—the way everyone does—makes him, as always, uncomfortable, so he straightens up, falling into polite but distant tones. ] My dog. [ In French, he still has an accent, but the Provençal accent that marks him as a Southerner, not a foreigner. ] She's white. Fluffy. Great Pyrenees Mix.

( Action )

[jolie_aile]

[Was that a circumflex mark? No, maybe she was looking at that one wrong, and—oh, dear. She was being quite rude.

Flandre replies in the same language, after a moment of startled blinking.]

Lost? I thought I saw something white out of the window earlier, but I thought it was my roommate going by. She has some white on the end of her tails.

[...Flan try to stay on topic here.]

( Action )

[mindwiped]

[ Okay, this is too much. Abel turns, faces the wall, sighing. Like the freak of nature he is, people won't stop staring at him, but that doesn't mean he has to take it. ] Thanks for your help. I'll go look for her now. [ He starts to walk away, a single stride covering about a meter. ]

( Action )

[jolie_aile]

[—oh dammit now look what you did, Flandre. She half lurches out of the doorway after him, stopping only awkwardly. That weird windchime noise rattles again, as one of those funny wings she wore on her back extended to catch herself on the doorway like a rather strange looking hand. A few of the crystals even seem to behave like fingers still attached to a proper bat wing.

But there's only one poking out of her dress; the second wing was currently detached and what she was fiddling with to begin with.]

Wait—I'm sorry! That was rude, and—I didn't get your name. I'll help you; I didn't mean to stare so. I'm sorry!

[Flandre's words all tumbled out in a somewhat awkward jumble. Her mother made sure to teach her good manners, but she tended to fumble the actual application of them sometimes. More than sometimes. Isolation tended to upend things.]

[onlyafleshwound]

[Before Nana opens the door, there's a bit of a telepathic poke as the diclonius tries to figure out who it is. She frowns a little when she doesn't, but goes to open the door anyway.

And almost has to bend her spine so far backwards she might fall over just to see his face.

As small as she was, though, the scars don't seem to startle her too much. Just made Nana feel a bit sad. They're just like the ones hidden under her shirt; did he know what it was like, too?

—wait what was he talking about.]

A creature?

[mindwiped]

[ He's about to respond to her question, but he's understandably distracted by...

...her ears. ] Woah, they're so cute! [ He makes a small noise of delight that seems ill-fitting on someone as large as him. ] Hey...would it be okay if I touched your ears?

[onlyafleshwound]

Nana's...ears?

[Her hands go up to her normal human ears at first before her brain catches up with the rest of the thought process.]

—oh! Um. Well...yes, you can, but they're not so soft. They're horns.

[Really an understandable misunderstanding, though. People asked that at home all the time. And what an odd noise he made! Surely he couldn't be bad, even if he was almost three times bigger than her. Nana relaxed somewhat, despite the question.]

[growing_pains]

[ You want to talk tall? Abel just knocked on a door that was a good bit taller and wider than the rest in the girl's dorm. And the person who opens it will be the answer as to why it had to be cut the way it did. ]

What's that? [ Yuugi ducks her head so her horn doesn't catch on the top frame (which has a few scratches to show that it's happened before. lots of times). She gives the new face a curious look. ]

[mindwiped]

[ Now, if all doors of the world were made like this, Abel wouldn't have a scar across his forehead, kept covered by the lock of hair that hangs down—at this point, hitting his head on the top of doors is a tradition.

It's a very nice door, and he's admiring its spacious nature when a woman with a horn (oh, he wants to touch it!) comes out.

And she's tall, only a couple of centimeters shorter than he is! And she's built like a brickhouse too! Mon dieu, this is great! ] Umm... [ Words, right. In English, preferably. ] ...I'm looking for a puppy. White, fluffy. Great Pyrenees mix.

[growing_pains]

[ It isn't often that she can look eye-to-eye with someone, and her grin expands when she realizes that she's not ducking down, looking down, and he's not standing on his toes or a box.

Hey, and those are some pretty bitchin' scars, too. The only thing Yuugi has to show for all her battle damage is a gold star on her horn.

Literally. It's a sticker. The old one used to say "you tried" but it came off in the shower. ] Great Pirawhat? [ Just like that, her expression falls a bit. She is not so good with words, sometimes. ]