strangetrip_ooc | [ Meme ] August-September Test Drive Meme (TDM)

[ Meme ] August-September Test Drive Meme (TDM)

It's that time again!

→ Comment with a new character you'd like to test out in the game's setting. (put character/canon in subject line pls!)
→ You don't have to be in the game to comment! HI NEW PEOPLE LET US ENABLE YOU.
→ Tag around with new and old characters.
→ App all those characters
→ ???
→ PROFIT!

Holds for current players are here. Current cast list is here. If you're a new player and you'd like to place a 2-week reserve, you can do so here.

* * *

Here, have a few helpful scenarios for test-driving. Feel free to ignore them and make your own.

I.
Wherever you were, you aren't any longer. You took a turn, a step, blinked and you're somewhere else entirely. A long dusty road leads from nowhere to an oasis (or a nightmare, depending on your taste) of pink and bright light in the midst of the scrub desert and there's nothing and no one else in sight. If you linger long enough on the road, one of the Inn's residents will find you, but you feel noticeably drawn to come inside.

The pink and gold lobby looks like a bunny puked Easter everywhere, and the guy at the reservation desk looks a sort of silly putty shade of pinkish grey. He knows you by name and has a room reserved for you, but other than offering you fresh towels, that's all he has to say. Chances are, one of the residents will intercept you before you talk to Darryl the shade. They'll give you a guest basket with toiletries and chocolates and whatever else Caroline thinks a newcomer needs, and explain (nicely) that you're stuck here, but hey, it's not so bad. It's pretty safe, anyway. At least... so far.

II.
The red, gold and gaudy pink of the Copper Cafe overflows with residents. It's morning, the one and only time nearly everyone finds themselves in the same space for a short window before going about their day. The scent of fresh coffee laces the air, mingling with the buttery aroma of fresh baked pastry. The shade who serves as a cook, Kahni, awaits any orders that include chicken (chicken, not eggs), and Carlos has staffed one of the residents who can cook to make anything else you'd like. Kitty's pouring drinks -- no reason not to drink bloody maries or mimosas on your permanent holiday. Grab a spot at the counter or take a seat at an empty table, now that you're a resident too, there's no better way to start your day.

III. Network
[ooc: Our network is text-based and magic journal. No computers yet. You see this suspiciously well-painted image appear in your network-journal. Uh-oh. Someone taught Lillith to meme.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nothing." He held up his purple gloved hand. "Protective wear. Think of it like kevlar against bullets."

Artie was smart enough not to mention that it only required skin contact. That wasn't what the other man asked, he asked touch.

"Besides you'd have to touch them first and that would negate the issue."

“I’m sure it will pain you to be so wrong.” The slightest whisper of magic was enough to pick up the magnets telekinetically, then touch them to the man’s cheek. “Assuming these work as intended and I let you have your mind back.”

"I'm never wrong." There was certainty in that statement. It was the last certainty that he had.

Artie didn't know what had happened until after he felt the cool metal of the magnets on his cheek. How had that happened?

[wheee!]

“Later, I may remind you you said that.” This was different than the scepter had been in a myriad of ways, but in a myriad of others it was the same. Loki almost expected to hear the whispering again. Do it! It’ll be fun.

Fortunately, the magnets seemed less enthusiastic than the scepter, but Loki still lost a measure of enthusiasm for the thing. “Remove your gloves, then take the magnets in your hand.” That would maintain the skin contact while not requiring Loki to hold the things any longer.”

From: st_opthat - DW Comment Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2018 4:57 PM To: anonymsly@gmail.com Subject: Re: Arthur 'Artie' Nielsen | Warehouse 13 [ strangetrip_ooc - 10082 ]

st_opthat replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry "[ Meme ] August-September Test Drive Meme (TDM)". The comment they replied to was: “I’m sure it will pain you to be so wrong.” The slightest whisper of magic was enough to pick up the magnets telekinetically, then touch them to the man’s cheek. “Assuming these work as intended and I let you have your mind back.” The reply was: Subject: Re: Arthur 'Artie' Nielsen | Warehouse 13 "I'm never wrong." There was certainty in that statement. It was the last certainty that he had.

Artie didn't know what had happened until after he felt the cool metal of the magnets on his cheek. How had that happened?

[wheee!]

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Artie found himself doing it without even mentally protesting. His purple gloves came off and instead of tossing them on the ground, he placed them in his pocket. He'd done it a thousand times before.

Once bare handed, Artie reached up and removed the magnet from his skin and wrapped his fingers around it as one would hold a cell phone.

Not even a whisper of protest. It was almost a shame, but it was also a good enough warning for Loki. Barton, especially, had screamed at the walls of his inner confinement. It hadn't done any good, but the man had been there in a way that this man now wasn't.

Any moment, the whispering would start in his own mind.

It was a successful experiment and a successful object lesson. It could be done now. "You have bags in your pocket," meaning the gloves, "so put the magnets in one, for later." That would free the man and contain the objects in one move, Loki thought.

Artie pulled out the bag and deposited the magnets inside. As soon as he did there was white flashing light and he came back to himself. He glared at the other man, but there was also a deep curiosity in his eyes.

"How were you able to do that?" Was there another artifact? Possible, but unlikely. "You manipulated the magnets without touching them. Did you manipulate the magnetic field strength causing more of a pull than a push?" Again possible, but was it likely?

“That... sounds overcomplicated.” It would probably work, but that wasn’t the point. “I used magic.”

"Don't be ridiculous, magic doesn't exist." Artie waved off that explanation. Since he hadn't given a scientific explanation, that meant artifact in Artie's mind.

"Fine. If you don't want to tell me about the artifact you used, just know that it could be dangerous to you. When it turns your brain to mush, I'll pick it up."

His first concern was the artifact always. The man deserved what he got for willfully handling an artifact he didn't understand after a warning.

"Oh, has Midgard somehow learned how to prove a negative?" Loki's expression was one of pure, polite interest, but his tone of voice was pure I'm laughing at you. "Astonishing."

Artie didn't know what a Midgard was but he did recognize condescending. He used it enough himself.

"I can prove a negative beyond a reasonable doubt." He countered with his own I'm laughing at you tone. "If magic did exist, we would expect to find evidence that it did. We have plenty of evidence in the fictional creation of magic. There is also evidence that people of the past thought that magic existed but it was merely science that hadn't been discovered yet. The Earth isn't flat, we travel around the sun, atoms can be seen through a microscope and artifacts such as Mesmer's magnets do in fact alter others as recently demonstrated." A beat. "A reasonable mind would understand that logic."

Loki smiled pleasantly. One of those, then. Adorable. "Not that I care about your persistent delusion - it's rather cute, in fact - but if I turned you into a frog, would that convince you?"

"I can hardly dispute that evidence." He said it in a tone that clearly indicated that the man wouldn't be able to do it. It was probably a stupid thing to do, to poke the god of mischief bear.

"Excellent. I'll take these for safekeeping." He lifted the makeshift glove-bag with the magnets away and set it back on the table where they'd started. Best not to tempt any odd cross-section of power.

And then he turned the man into a frog with a flick of magic. A fine specimen of a bullfrog, all things considered, but very definitely a frog.

One minute Artie was a human and the next he felt his body shift and change. He opened his mouth to say something, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a very distinctive bullfrog croak.

He was able to glare at the man through his wire rimmed glasses that stayed on his face. Was he poisonous? Maybe he'd try it out. Artie flicked his long tongue toward the tall dark haired man but when it didn't have an effect on him, he grumbled, a very froglike grumble.

Loki picked up the frog and patted him on the head. "Croak if you acknowledge you were wrong."

If frogs had teeth Artie would have bit his hand, but sadly they did not. Or at least not like he wished them to have. Instead he did as was directed from the indignity of being held in a hand. He opened his mouth and croaked loudly.

Loki patted the frog on the head. "That's the way, Mr. Toad." He set the frog back on the ground and undid the spell, returning the man to himself.

Artie felt his body manipulated once again and this time it shifted from a frog to a human. He couldn't deny that he had been a frog, but that didn't mean it was magic. It just meant that either he'd thought he'd been a frog or an artifact, or something like it, turned him in to one.

This time he was wise enough to keep those thoughts to himself.

"I suppose it would be foolish of me to discount the appearance of magic after that." He'd chosen his words carefully on purpose.

"Out loud, anyway." These sorts always found a way to discount, but if they kept their mouths shut about it, that was really the closest one could get until time and exposure wore them down. "I'd make it a general rule, if I were you. I'm not the only sorcerer here, and I may not even be the least nice." He was the least good for a near-certainty, but the lovely and severe Illyana lacked even his gestures in the direction of social grace.

"Duly noted." Artie said as he pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. His hands reached out for the now sealed artifact and placed it back in his pocket.

His curved ever so slightly, "I'm probably the least nice pragmatist. It will be interesting encounters."

"The best kind," Loki observed, letting whether he meant least-nice pragmtists or interesting encounters. "Since I've patted you on the head, I should ask your name."

Because he was in a pissy mood, especially after being reminded of the head pat, he introduced himself as "Dr. Arthur Nielsen." He left it at that instead of shortening it to Artie, which he normally would have done.

Ah, the helpless annoyance, also known as 'the reward'. "Loki, god of mischief."

Artie knew that wasn't the truth but if he wanted to introduce himself that way, so be it. "Then I'm honored to have been changed by the god of mischief himself. That's a very rare group. Tell me, is Heimdall here, too?"

In old Norse mythology is was Heimdall that killed Loki at Ragnarok. Not that Artie truly believed that he was talking to Loki.