overbox | The Lucky Queen Testdrive

All Aboard The Lucky Queen Olivia

It's one of the many ships that sail the River with Ten Thousand Names, and if it's not the most luxurious and most famous ship in the whole of the multiverse, it's certainly in the top ten. For what other ship can claim its captain to be the centuries old brain of Mark Twain in a jar? Or to have the ghost of John Henry "Doc" Holliday as the first mate?

It's an unusual pair they make, but together they've not just kept what was originally a steam ship right off of he Mississippi together as it sails across the multiverse, but upgraded it into something almost totally unrecognizable. The Lucky Queen is now enormous. Almost half a mile long. It contains everything you expect to see on a luxury cruise ship, from swimming pools to shopping malls (yes, malls. Plural.), from ballrooms to arcades. It also contains fabulous distant technology that lets it sail just as easily in water as in molten lava or currents of empty air. It is on this ship that you have found yourself. Maybe you got lost in a freak transdimensional portal and hitched a ride, hoping to find your way home. Maybe you're on vacation. Maybe you just work here. Regardless, the marvels of the multiverse are just out the porthole, and the cream of high society is right here for you to brush elbows with.

Pick an RP Prompt and an Environment and test out characters who you think would work well in this setting:

RP Prompts
1 - The Ball: The orchestra is flawless, the chandeliers are sparkling. Hobnob with the ridiculously wealthy, dance with the extremely attractive, or just wallflower in the corner and enjoy the view. You have a crossection of the entire mulitverse dancing in front of you after all.

2 - The Break Room: This isn't just a vacation for you, this is your job. You just finished a long shift, possibly as a maid tidying up the hundreds of cabins, or a blackjack dealer getting threatened by hulking aliens who's language the auto-translators couldn't quite make sense of, or an engineer plumbing the depths of the ship which is pieced together from dozens of different kinds of technology and trying to make sure none of them explode. It's a lot of work, keeping a ship this big in working order, but now it's finally break time and you can chat with the rest of the crew while you catch your breath.

3 - Gate jump: It's always something everyone gets onto the deck for, for this is the most reliable form of interdimensional travel anyone has ever found. One moment you'll be in one world, the next you'll be in another. The gravity shifts, the air smells different, the sky changes color, the landscape becomes completely unrecognizable. Is this the first time you've seen it happen, or is this you hundredth jump? Will you calm your neighbor or be excited with them? (Pick two environments for this one.)

4 - River Raiders: Raiders sometimes attack the wealthy cruisers along The River to plunder their amazing wealth, and while the Lucky Queen has forcefields that can defend it, they aren't always enough. Are you crew? Are you a passenger? For once it doesn't matter. Stand to arms mateys, yer being boarded!

5 - Casino: High stakes cards! Slot Machines! Roulette! There's even a fighting ring you can bet on, or participate in. Security SEEMS light, but rumor has it that the ghost of the infamous gambler, gunfighter, and dentist, Doc Holliday, has a tendency to join the games of people who cheat. Such games usually do not end well for the cheater.

6 - Tours: While the ship has docked, the passengers are free to step off and explore whatever world you're currently standing on. There are usually guides available on the ship about the more immediate dangers, but they usually boil down to don't try any local cuisine until you're sure its chemistry matches up with yours, keep an eye on your wallet, and for heaven's sake don't sell your soul to anyone.

7 - Wildcard: Make something up that I didn't think up here.

Environments
A - Earthlike: Blue skies, breathable air, cities full of people. Most of you will feel fairly at home on worlds like this, but they're never QUITE like home, are they? The trees might have an oddly blue tinge to the leaves. The people might be unusually tall or short. The cities might have strange looking architecture.

B - Open ocean: No land in sight, just endless waves all the way to the horizon. The ship sways a bit more than usual out here. Hope you don't get seasick.

C - Noxious: This world clearly isn't meant for humans. Without the Lucky Queen's forcefields that keep breathable air in and poisons out (They can't quite eliminate the strange chemical smells that seep in.), humans would quickly die here. Expect truly alien locals, if anyone lives here at all. Is that a shoggoth waving to you from the shore?

D - Infernal: Did you hear the rumors that the Lucky Queen sails through hell? If it doesn't, this world is close enough that you can't tell the difference. The waters of the previous world have been replaced by bubbling magma. In the distance, you can sometimes make out obsidian cities, gleaming in the red light. Is that sound in the distance the wailing of damned souls or just your imagination?

E - Gas Giant: There's no ground here at all. The river becomes a river of air, and the anti-grav impellers that were installed keep the ship sailing along just fine. Gaze upon pillars of clouds larger than smaller planets. Witness lightning bolts bigger than the Empire State Building. Thank that forcefield that keeps the horrifically potent rainstorms from washing you all off the decks. There are probably sky whales swimming across this world's skies somewhere.

F - Depths of space: Why does the river go through here at all? Who knows, but the view sure is nice. Ten times more stars than you'd see from anywhere on Earth, and also orbital commercial space stations trying to make a quick buck off of wide-eyed tourists.

G - Wild card: Make up your own planet. We're all creative people here, right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

-7A-

Lost tourists were always a problem, which is why the ship had its own professional werewolf on board. Angua stood at the docks and sniffed the air.

"He was here...maybe five hours ago. Wearing a green jacket. He went..."

She trailed off as she sorted through the hundreds of competing scents in the air, then started wandering down the dock, dreamlike. "...this would be easier if I went plains clothes."

-2C-

Angua shambled into the breakroom without a word, got a washcloth, wet it, and then draped it over her face before lying down longways on the sofa. The fumes of sulfuric acid vapor the forcefield mostly kept out were unpleasant enough, but... There had been an accident in the kitchens, and pure essence of garlic had gotten tracked all over half the ship. When you have a supercharged sense of smell, that...can be a problem.

"I'm never eating pasta again."

-3-

These things happen sometimes. Angua had been minding her own business when the jump came. The world they were on now had five moons, and they were ALL FULL. Even safely in the depths of the ship, there was no way she could avoid that. Where before had been a tall, attractive blonde woman, now there was a large blonde wolf looking surprised and irritated at the same time standing in a pile of clothes.

That wasn't something you see every day, and this was coming from a creature that was created using the essence of desires and animal spirits, and spent a large part of his rebirth trying to find the rest of him. One red and green clawed hand tapped on the piping he was perched on, a shapely eyebrow raised as the transformation finally stopped and the pleasant looking human became a rather large (and bitey looking) dog. Maybe she knew he was there (even though he wore a human form, the essence of bird and metal followed him around) or maybe not, but he was going to announce his presence in a normal manner.

By being his normal jerky self.

"Tell me, is it normal for people to become dogs where you come from?"

Edited 2015-08-30 00:59 (UTC)

The bitey nature of this other dog doesn't bother her. She's rather bitey looking herself. What IS bothering her is that wow she can actually smell the smug. Angua counters with dry sarcasm.

"Naturally."

"Naturally."

He repeated it with a slight curl to his upper lip and shifted in his position so he was at least close enough without being too close. He really didn't see that happen before. Sure, Yummies came in all shapes and colors though their bases were dependent on who made them, but she was clearly nothing like that. He suppose he could always pester Shingo for more information but that would mean he was actually needing the human's help and that was just ridiculous (even if it was true, considering).

"Why?"

Edited 2015-08-30 01:07 (UTC)

She resisted the urge to growl at him. It was much harder to do in this shape than it was while human shaped, but she managed it. Was this guy another werewolf? He didn't smell like a werewolf, but he didn't smell like a dog either. Or a human for that matter.

"Well some days you just feel like a dog, you know?"

Edited 2015-08-30 01:10 (UTC)

"No, I don't know."

Curling his right hand (his talons scraping a little at the build up of corrosion on the piping) Ankh sighed and wondered if he should dare to drop from his perch and talk to the dog face-to-face but... well, she had a lot of teeth and he wasn't exactly found of teeth going into his arm. Besides, Shingo might get mad.

"Explain it to me."

"I will if you explain how you can talk to dogs."

It was a question that had been growing more urgent in her mind. She hadn't expected him to actually understand her.

Edited 2015-08-30 02:42 (UTC)

"Greeed are created through the use of alchemy and desire, and uses the essence of animals as their cores. Technically I refrain from speaking to mammals, but I am curious and a little bored."

He really has no qualms explaining the basics to anyone. After all, it was okay to be curious. It was a good desire and one he just had no problem with so long as it didn't cost him his Cores.

"I'm Ankh, the King of Birds." There were a lot of birds with the intelligence to understand language, more of them that can mimic sounds and speech. Ankh could call on such if he really felt the need to. "Who are you?"

"So you're almost like some kind of golem, then?"

She didn't introduce herself QUITE yet.

"That is too simple of an explanation for a Greeed."

A slight head toss, with an added trill that was sort of like an exotic bird's sound of displeasure (or the beginning of a warning, depending on circumstances). Deciding that he was getting nothing accomplished sitting on top of some pipes in the bowels of the ship, Ankh jumped down. No doubt now she could pick out the layers of scents coming off of him now - the various birds and metallic smell of the Medals and a slight scent of the detective.

"Golems have a limited kind of free will. We are free will."

"But similar, at least. You were made, not born."

Just for a start! She could also smell what he stepped in earlier that morning, what he had for breakfast, who had made that snazzy jacket, and a dozen other things without even trying.

Mostly likely his breakfast included a lot of ice cream and ice pops and other things of an equally icy nature. Ankh has one preference and while he is nagged (by his human host) to eat better foods, he will eat his treats whenever he has a chance.

"If you want to be technical."

He crouched down at her level, head tilted to the side to study her. He saw a large canine, though her language was sophisticated, it still showed the human mind behind the animal.

The wolf sat on her haunches and managed to look irritated. Not at Ankh specifically. Just at having to think like a human so much right now. It was hard to form sapient thoughts as a wolf. More like being drunk than anything else she could think of, except when you stopped concentrating you acted like a wolf instead of just acting stupid and clumsy.

"Then if you want to be technical, I am a theriomorph."

"I see." That would be something completely out of the realm of most Greeed or even the world he was from. she would be something that might be a whispered idea to humans - or at least a movie monster on the big screen. Shingo or Eiji might be better at explaining it to him, but Ankh didn't really wanted to ask them.

Even if they kept on telling him it was fine to ask questions.

"Are you going to stay down here like that?"

The Lucky Queen Testdrive

Angua von Uberwald | Discworld

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