st_aff: (Carnival)
Strange Staff ([personal profile] st_aff) wrote in [community profile] strangetrip_ooc2018-08-13 06:38 pm

[ 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.]

st_evengrantrogers: (014)

Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-15 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
I.

Steve climbed off his motorcycle and started up toward the building. Running on nearly empty, he finally had to stop and ask for directions. He'd been on the road for hours and hours, and found himself completely and entirely lost. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened--and paper maps were an obsolete relic only slightly younger than he was. Natasha had shown him a couple of times how to use the map application on his phone, but he still wasn't used to the thing.

This place looked interesting, and there were plenty of lights on in the windows. A sure sign of life. There must be someone inside who can help him find his way back to the interstate. Steve wasn't sure about things, though, as he headed inside the pink lobby. The concierge knew his name (then again, who didn't?) and insisted that he had a room here in this hotel.

Curiouser and curiouser. Instead of arguing the point, Steve gave a gentle, "thank you" and took the proffered key. Best to avoid conflict. Maybe there was someone else here that could help him figure all of this out. He turned to look around the lobby, wishing that he'd taken up Tony on the offer for more training on the blasted pocket computer.
st_james: (Default)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_james 2018-08-15 02:52 pm (UTC)(link)
The man in the lobby looked almost exactly how he himself had felt when he'd arrived. Confused, and full of questions. Because Kitty would appreciate him making the effort he approached. Not that he would tell Kitty anything about this.

"Just checking in?" his accent was clearly British, and his entire demeanor, despite his decision to be helpful came off a bit stiff.
st_evengrantrogers: (004)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-15 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Steve turned at the sound of the voice and cocked his head to the side--much like a golden retriever hearing words he didn't quite understand. This place looked normal, but Steve wasn't sure if that was the case. After all, appearances were often deceiving.

"Apparently so." He said, not unkindly. Steve took a couple of steps toward the other man, holding up his key. "They seem to think I am, anyway."
st_james: (Default)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_james 2018-08-16 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
"They would know, or at least that's what I was told when I arrived unexpectedly." He considered the man, wondering if he should explain or if he should obtain liquor and Kitty and get her to explain.

He went with option A.

"The much abbreviated version is you're stuck here. We all are, you're not special. No way out, no way home, or not one anyone has shared. I am not the one who decides who is stuck so please don't get angry at me. The food is plentiful, the alcohol more so. And the the rooms make the Lobby look positively sedate so I hope you like color."

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

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st_andalone: (Default)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_andalone 2018-08-15 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Juliana had been a newcomer herself not that long ago and recognized the look of confusion on his features. She approached a bit shyly, not sure that she would be able to offer more of a help than others, but she wanted to help out a fellow traveler.

"Hello. Do you need some help?"
st_evengrantrogers: (012)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-15 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"I... I'm not sure." Steve answered quite honestly. He was still holding the key that the desk clerk had handed him, along with the keys to his motorcycle which was still parked outside.

"I'm a bit confused as to what just happened." How had the clerk known his name? It was as if he was expected here, though he hadn't even known himself that he was coming this way.

Heck, Steve still wasn't quite sure where he was.
st_andalone: (Default)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_andalone 2018-08-16 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
"I can't tell you how or why it happened, but I can tell you what happened. We were brought to a different reality that's from out of time. I believe they called it a pocket dimension."

Juliana motioned toward the hotel key card in his hand, "you use that to get into your room." Her smile turned wry, "that was hard for me to get used to, I only knew how to use a normal door key." She paused a beat, "do you know how to use one?"

Juliana was from 1962, Nazi and Japanese occupied America.

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

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st_raighttovampire: (Cheer)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_raighttovampire 2018-08-15 05:09 pm (UTC)(link)
As if on queue, a pretty blonde radiating a vibrant, almost nervous energy popped up next to him, holding a basket stuff to the brim with items. She held it out with a smile and a chipper, "Welcome to the Inn. It's overwhelming, I know. Here, we keep this around for new guests. I'm Caroline, by the way."

She leaned over the desk and craned her head to get a look at the paperwork still in front of the desk clerk. "Steve?"
st_evengrantrogers: (014)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-15 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Never one to refuse a proffered gift from a beautiful woman, Steve hurried to accept the basket from the girl. Caroline. Pretty name. The basket was stuffed with items, but he held it as if it was weightless.

"Hello, Caroline. Yes, Steve Rogers. But I'm not sure how the clerk got my name. I was lost, and stopped in for directions back to the interstate."
st_oneswidow: (Guitar)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_oneswidow 2018-08-15 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Curnen sang every day, but on arrival days she almost saw it as her job. Weaving a subtle magic to draw anybody who popped into their tiny world toward the inn, since it wasn't like they had any place else to go. They could try, but you could go an awful long way in four hours and get pretty lost out there if you didn't know what you were doing.

So that was why a barefoot young woman was sitting in the lobby tuning a guitar, hands moving with practiced ease over pegs and frets and strings. She had six fingers on each hand, but unlike many with extra digits, her extra set of pinkies were just as functional as the rest.

Curnen looked up from what she was doing at the familiar sounds of Darryl welcoming a new guest. "You look a little lost," she said, her drawl clearly southern. Tennessee, if you had an ear for it.
st_evengrantrogers: (014)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-16 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
"That may be because I am a little lost," Steve conceded. He looked down and over at the woman sitting with her instrument, at first not recognizing the extra fingers. The accent was a little unusual, too, as the last Steve remembered, he was in California.

"I'd just pulled over to get directions. Somehow they knew I was coming."
st_oneswidow: (Sprite)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_oneswidow 2018-08-16 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Darryl's got that way," Curnen agreed, at least for the time being ignoring the instrument in her hands even as she was itching to finish tuning. He'd made it here, but who knew who else might be out there? "It's 'bout the only way he's got, though, and it's pretty creepy. This is the Madonna Inn. You're gonna be here a spell, I'm sorry to say."

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

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st_artingateam: (pic#12502329)

Steve Rogers | Nick

[personal profile] st_artingateam 2018-08-15 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"If you're here and I'm here, then who the hell is left back home?" Nick saw Steve enter, but watched what he would do. Typical Steve fashion, even in potential enemy territory he was polite as hell. Maybe this place brought Steve in to balance his own ass out.

Now he was leaning against a pillar casually, arms crossed as if he knew exactly where he was, what he was doing, and like he expected Steve to show up.
st_evengrantrogers: (015)

Re: Steve Rogers | Nick

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-16 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
And then Steve saw that Nick Fury was standing in the lobby. Leaning, actually, against one of the pillars. And Steve wasn't sure what to think about the whole thing.

"Back home?" He repeated after the one-eyed man, his own eyebrows rose gently at the words. "What does that mean?"
st_artingateam: (Default)

Re: Steve Rogers | Nick

[personal profile] st_artingateam 2018-08-16 04:25 am (UTC)(link)

"Sorry, Cap, but we're not in Kansas anymore." It almost came out sounding like his 'need to know' voice, but he thought better of it at the last moment. "Turns out aliens and robots and all the shit we deal with back home isn't where the crazy ends. There's also alternate realities and worlds like this one." He held his hands out on both sides, gesturing. In truth, he already knew about some of it - he was familiar with the Quantum realm.

"Somehow you've managed to go from wherever you were to this overly-pink oasis people are calling the Madonna Inn."

Re: Steve Rogers | Nick

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st_arkravinghazelnut: (black sabbath more neutral)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_arkravinghazelnut 2018-08-16 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
Tony Stark was as quiet as a mouse where he resided in one of the lobby chairs, legs crossed and arms folded and decorated with traces of dirt and dried pine needles. For once, he largely went unnoticed. He had simply dozed off after returning from a long hike in the surrounding area and had deemed the first comfortable seating offering as worthy enough to relax. It was as much a testament to his growing familiarity with the hotel as it was his lingering antipathy towards his designated accommodations.

Usually the lobby didn't see much excitement, and the sounds chit chat were enough to draw him from his cat nap. Blinking back to the land of the living, Tony's dark eyes were drawn to a tall, blurry stranger in the center of the lobby. Even in his barely-awake mind, he could tell from the body language alone that this person was lost. Poor bastard.

"Hope your room's better than mine." Tony offered some lazy sympathy, rubbing his eyes.
st_evengrantrogers: (001)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-16 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
A familiar voice made Steve turn, but now he was even more confused. Tony was supposed to be in New York, not in California. And he looked--well, he looked like he'd just been tromping through the woods. Steve wasn't used to seeing Tony Stark in the woods. At least, not in a suit made from cloth.

"Tony?" He asked, taking a tentative step toward his friend and fellow Avenger. "What are you doing here?"
st_ratagem: (:-D)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_ratagem 2018-08-16 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Ah, Captain Rogers. Fantastic! I wasn't feeling quite outnumbered enough yet." It hadn't taken Loki long to get accustomed enough to the Inn to feel comfortable tweaking new residents, especially ones who had ample reason to hate him. Yes, they were all in the same boat (imprisoned in a pocket dimension) and thus more or less forced to be all on the same side-ish, but that was no reason Loki couldn't wallow a little bit in the pleasure of seeing the 'good guys' locked up in the same prison deemed fit for 'the war criminal Loki'.
st_evengrantrogers: (006)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-17 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
Loki? Steve blinked over at the other man--at Thor's brother. They'd been enemies, but the last thing Steve remembered, Thor was taking Loki back to Asgard. That was a few years ago, admittedly, Steve lost track of the trickster since. And now he just... turned up? In some random hotel in California? Steve wasn't sure he bought it.

Arms crossed his chest, and Steve's stance moved almost subconsciously to one of preparation: feet shoulder-width apart. "Loki." He paused, cocking his head slightly to the side. "...you're outnumbered, are you?"

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

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st_alksthroughwalls: (studying you)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_alksthroughwalls 2018-08-16 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
Since the day Peter Parker had arrived, Kitty had been counting the days on the arrival of the other Avengers. She had run calculations on the 'stickiness' of various universes and the arrival of people-clusters, and she'd been unsurprisingly close to right when the next associated superhero had arrived.

Even still, when Steve Rogers appeared in the lobby on her check-in day morning shift, you could have knocked her over with a feather. Not because he was an Avenger, or Captain America, or even because she'd known at least ten mutants with killer crushes on the man (she hadn't been one of them, because as Yana pointed out daily, she had terrible taste in men). But because she hadn't been obsessed with him or even been particularly interested, but here he was and it was like...

Well, it was like being around Jean. He took up the oxygen in a room--and returned it somehow clearer for his quiet presence. Maybe that was why she let him talk to Darryl first and waited for the coffee to finish brewing so she could pour him a cup before meeting him in the lobby. And because she'd been around Jean, and Warren, she didn't greet him with his name and knowing all about him.

She simply held out the coffee cup and said, "Hi. I'm Kitty. You look like you might want a cup of coffee with your questions."
st_evengrantrogers: (014)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-17 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Steve could absolutely use a strong cup-o-joe. He turned as the woman approached, raised a gentle eyebrow, then accepted the coffee cup. So far no one had ever tried to outright poison him, and definitely not with a cup of coffee and promise to answer his questions. Steve felt okay about accepting.

"I really just wanted to get some directions back to the interstate. I didn't realize this was going to be a big ordeal. And somehow the clerk knows who I am?" He hadn't really meant it as a question, but it ended up as one.
conflictedsoldier: (feeling blue)

[personal profile] conflictedsoldier 2018-08-17 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Quietly, a man approached Steve from behind. He stood there, almost not wanting to disturb the good Captain. He waited, for what seemed like forever to him, before finally reaching up and tapping the man on his shoulder. Cold, metal fingers would gently touch him, hoping not to startle him too badly.

"Steve?"
st_evengrantrogers: (010)

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-17 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
With all the confusion and the strangeness of the lobby, Steve hadn't been expecting a metallic finger to touch his shoulder. He'd been distracted; looking at the key, looking around the gaudy pink room, glancing at the unusual and robotic looking clerk... then he was turning at the tap and the sound of a familiar voice.

"Buck?" The word came out more like a wish than a greeting. Steve wanted nothing more than to wrap his old friend in a huge, bear-hug. But this wasn't the Bucky he remembered from seventy years ago. Steve didn't want to hurt or terrify his friend by moving too quickly.

"Is that really you?"

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st_ackeddeck: (shy)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_ackeddeck 2018-08-17 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Live in the same castle as someone long enough, and your paths crossed, whether you ever became close or not. Kind of like here at the inn. The Steve Rogers Emma knew had been, probably unsurprisingly, kind, with a dry sense of humor, and she'd liked him. Seeing a version of him in the lobby didn't hurt the way some other faces would have, but even knowing this probably wasn't the Steve from her world, there was enough familiarity there she didn't feel as twitchy approaching as she might have otherwise.

"This place has that effect. Either from the decor, from your arrival somehow being expected, or both. For me it was both," she said, a shy smile on her face as she didn't quite meet his eyes.
st_evengrantrogers: (Default)

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

[personal profile] st_evengrantrogers 2018-08-18 04:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe both." Steve said, looking up and around the room--the lobby. The whole thing was confusing, not just the fact that they knew he was coming. But everything about this place set his mind on fire. He had goosebumps along his arms. He couldn't explain it.

"About that expected arrival... did they do the same thing for you?" Steve asked, turning to look at the woman. Who wasn't looking at him. He cocked his head to the side. He wondered if he was intimidating her, or if she was shy. He'd dealt with his fair share of shy fans in his tour days, so he knew not to push it.

Re: Steve Rogers | MCU

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