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[astonishing_xmods]

THE TEST DRIVE MEME

Hello, True Believers!

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!


Be sure to read up on all game information and the "!event" tag to make sure you have all your ducks in a row.

Comments

[garganteren]

Because people got mad about the attack, and suddenly the Friends of Humanity weren't good enough for him anymore. I don't know what he's thinking.

[Eren doesn't seem to appreciate the laughter, well-intentioned or not, and he scowls.]

No, I can't. I don't want that to happen ever again! It'll always be a monster.

I do give people credit! When they deserve it!

God, I can't spell today...

[niepokonany]

You think maybe there was a reason people got mad about the attack?

[It isn't something he likes to talk about, or think about, if there's not a point to doing so. Talking about that day hurts. But because he feels bad for Eren, he decides to try.]

[So he sets down his ponies and he reaches into his bag for a tablet. He takes it out of sleep mode, and pulls up an image gallery -- saved news images, from the coverage of the incident.]

Take a look for a second.

[There are students, pale and terrified, curled up in a huddle at the farthest point from the door of one of the interior rooms. Teachers, wounded and nearly as frightened, standing their ground as the Sentinels descend, some with lingering students hidden behind them. People in tears at Jean Grey's funeral.]

[There's one in there of himself, clipped from the school's security footage -- first pounding on the inside of a locked door in panicked tears, with other students trying to pull him away. He can still hear his own voice rising above the sirens, when he looks at it: Where is he? Who saw him come in? What if he's still out there -- let me out, I have to go look for him!]

The way we're born doesn't make us monsters. Not you, either.

Come on, don't you totally think we can do better than this?

[garganteren]

[The pictures seem to agitate Eren, and he pales, clearly growing upset, as he doesn't ever manage to hide his feelings well. He was only nine at the time of the attack, but he was aware of it. Of course they talked about it, at home. At the time, those pictures had reminded him of what had happened before...]

I already saw it! I saw the news. I saw what happened to the president, too! I didn't say they should hurt any kids or send robots, so that's got nothing to do with me. What about what happened to my town? Nobody talks about that?! I guess it wasn't a good enough photo op, huh?

[As far as he's concerned, the only people who cared about him were the Friends of Humanity. No one else did anything for him, but they took in a lot of the kids who were orphaned, gave them a home and a place to stay, looked after them. Now everyone acts like they're the bad guys!

Although as Eren thinks this, he's fully aware that the people who were taking care of him just tried to kill him. He probably would be dead if not for his healing factor. But he forgives them. He knows they were trying to do what was right. He'd hurt them. He was a monster.]

You're wrong! I am a monster! I could do something—even worse than that!

[niepokonany]

Well.

[Feliks shrugs, doing his best not to let it get to him, the anger or the pity.]

I think you could do better. What's the point of rolling over and dying, when there are people on both sides who need helping?

Being a mutant or a human doesn't make you a monster. It's what you do. And anybody can change that, right?

[garganteren]

It's not rolling over and dying! If you're really dangerous, maybe you should do the right thing for everybody and not be selfish. I'd be dying for everyone's good.

[Like a martyr for the cause.]

No, I don't think everybody can change. Some people won't, and somecan't. Like I'd change being a mutant if I could, but I can't.

[niepokonany]

You can't change being a mutant, but why should you? You're not hurting anyone just by existing!

Look. I'm selfish as Hell sometimes, ok? I don't really pay attention to what people tell me, and I make my best friend carry my bags when we go shopping because he's taller, and I only share my food if I'm not super hungry anyway, and God help anyone who tries to change the channel when I'm watching football or chick flicks, because I'll fight them.

I know selfish, and wanting to live? It's not selfish!

What you can change is how you treat people. What you can change is that BS, self-defeating attitude!

You are what you are. Why not use it for good?

[garganteren]

Yes, I am.

[Eren glances away, temporarily confused by the personal information.]

I share my food, and I don't care what's on TV.

[Not that he watched much TV where he lived. He doesn't see what the point of saying all that is.]

Maybe I don't always pay attention, and maybe I'm selfish too, but... I want to do what's best for the people I care about. I can't see my friends anymore, or my family. I can't go home.

And you're wrong! I never want to be that monster again! I don't even know what I'm doing when I'm like that! I can't even remember. I'd do anything to make it go away, anything....

[niepokonany]

Ok. So, you think your friends and your family would want you to feel like that? Like you suck just for existing, like your mutation is more important than everything you are, like your life is worth that little?

Because you don't, and it isn't! And anyone who told you otherwise is a piece of shit friend!

A lot of us had trouble controlling it at your age. But that's one thing this school is here for -- to teach us how to live and be safe and be in control, so we won't end up hurting people!

[garganteren]

My family's dead, because of mutants! And my friends took me in, and you people took me away from them! They were always good to me. So why should I trust mutants, or listen to anything they say?

I did something bad, and I should have to pay for it, just like anyone else! I don't think I should get a free ride for being a mutant, and I don't think anyone else should either.

I don't want to control it, I just want to make it go away forever!

[niepokonany]

Yeah. Us people, us awful mutant monsters, not wanting to let a bunch of violent extremists brainwash and murder a kid for something he couldn't control!

[garganteren]

I'm not brainwashed, you're brainwashed!

[He is the master of the eloquent comeback.]

It wasn't like that at all! I told you, they care about me. It's not like they wanted to do it! But it was the right thing to do, and it was what I wanted! I didn't want to come here, I hate it here!

[niepokonany]

[Feliks laughs a little at that, but it's short and humorless. No, Eren. Honey, no.]

[He'd have given up on this argument long ago, if he weren't also legendarily hardheaded. Pushing him basically just makes him more stubborn.]

Bitch, this has Stockholm Syndrome all over it, and you're gonna say I'm brainwashed?

Can you take half a second to think how totally messed up it is for anyone, ever, to say "oh they were so nice to me except for the part where they were trying to straight-up murder me, ~for humanity~"?

[garganteren]

I'm sorry I told you that, because you're making it sound really bad!

[Who can say how Eren thinks his caretakers planning to murder him could be phrased more positively?]

You think mutations are a good thing, when really they're an illness that should be cured.

[That's the kind of argument that wins friends and influences people.]

It was just so I wouldn't hurt anyone else! I asked them to do it! You have to make sacrifices for the good of humanity!

[niepokonany]

So you're saying it was more like assisted suicide.

For an underage dependent.

Who you personally taught to hate and fear everything about mutants.

That sounds less sketchy.

[garganteren]

No—that's not what I'm saying!

[Except that's totally what happened.]

They just care about me! Of course you couldn't understand, you're one of them. I'd rather be dead than hurt anyone, and I don't see what's wrong with that. They didn't teach me, the mutants taught me that!

[niepokonany]

Um, what part of that isn't exactly what you just told me?

Look. "The mutants" didn't teach you anything -- those mutants did. It doesn't make any more sense to say "the mutants" all do something than "the humans" -- there are good people and bad people, and the mutant thing doesn't actually have a ton to do with which is which?

It's great that you don't wanna hurt anybody. It totally is! But you can do that and still live!

[garganteren]

I told you they were helping me! You don't have to make it sound—so bad. If they were really bad, they'd use me as a weapon or something. Or they'd hurt me instead of trying extra hard to make sure I wouldn't feel any pain.

Yeah, they did. They taught me that no matter what happens, humans are going to be attacked by those monsters! Not even for any reason. It doesn't matter how nice some of them are, there's going to be bad ones that will try to wipe out the other species because they think they're less important! There's going to be a war. And I'm not going to be one of the ones who hurts innocent, normal people.

[He shakes his head, stubborn as ever.]

No... I can't.

[niepokonany]

Sure, there's always gonna some mutants who have dumb reasons to hurt other people, the exact same as there are always gonna be some humans who are like that. You think humans haven't ever wiped out entire cultures of other humans? You think they haven't tried to do it to us? 'Cause one, please open any non-doctored history book ever, and two, you're basically telling me, right now, that the humans you love and trust are so set on killing any mutant who might be dangerous, even if they'd never want to be, that they'd do it to a kid who trusts them!

The thing that makes that kind of war? It's thinking the "other side" aren't really people, and no one should be doing it. That puts innocent people in danger, and it's exactly what you're doing now!

Don't just not hurt people. Protect them! Otherwise, you're just running away like some kind of a loser, right?

[garganteren]

I do know history! I've read history books! I never said people don't do bad things, but you don't listen to anything I'm saying. I'm talking about people who could wipe out a city with their mind, which isn't what's in history books!

[Eren is stressed and tired and wants to go home. He's tired of being spoken to like he's stupid, and tired of hearing the people he cares about spoken ill of. They may not have been his real family, but they'd treated him like he was family, and he loves them.]

You don't know anything! I'm a monster! I kill people!

What I'm doing is for everyone's good! Sometimes you have to die for the cause, because it's the right thing to do!

[niepokonany]

Yeah, most of us can't do that kind of thing, and most of the ones who can don't want to!

[This isn't working. But all of a sudden, a thought occurs to Feliks.]

Look. Just... Stay here a while and try learning to control it. Ok? No one's gonna make you stay forever, or make you fight for us or anything. You wanna live, right? If you can, without hurting people?

If you're right, and something goes wrong while you're here, you're only gonna hurt mutants.

But if I'm right? You can live and help people.

It's win-win for you, right?

[garganteren]

That's what you say.

[Eren doesn't have to believe anything any mutant says.]

I want to live back home, with the people who care about me! Not some kidnappers.

[Sure, he'd like to live, but now he's all alone. And if his family thinks he should die, then that's probably what's best for him!]

What the hell? I don't want to hurt little kids, even if they are mutants. I'm not some murderer! And I don't want to be a monster. So I'm not going to risk it at all. I'll never ever use it again. I'd die first!

[niepokonany]

If we didn't care, why would I be giving myself a total headache talking to you and trying to get you to give not dying a shot? Trust me, I could be having a lot more fun than this. Like, bashing my head against a wall, for starters.

If you hide from it, you're not gonna be able to keep it in when shit hits the fan. Just saying.

And it's sweet that you suddenly care about killing us if you're doing it with your own hands instead of just telling lynch mobs where we live, but you kinda don't have to worry about that. Seriously. All of the X-men live here, and it's not like they'd be training someone with a dangerous mutation right up next to a bunch of kids or something.

You can't go back there. Why not make the most of your time here?

[garganteren]

I don't know... because you people want to brainwash me?

[Don't make Eren think about these things.]

I'm not having any fun, either. I'm being held against my will! And I said I'm not going to use it, ever, and I meant it. I'm not changing my mind about that!

You keep going on about all mutants not being murderers, but not all humans are either, so no, it's not telling lynch mobs where you live. Mutants are the ones who are more dangerous.

[He actually would kill mutants with his own hands, excuse you—but just the dangerous ones.]

And I don't trust any of you.

[niepokonany]

Dude, if we wanted you brainwashed? There'd be someone in your brain already. We don't brainwash people.

And I'm not sure how you think "telling lynch mobs and also literally everyone else where all of us live" means "no, we're totally not telling the lynch mobs or anything!" That's kinda the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot in the last 5 minutes.

Just saying all that stuff a zillion times doesn't make you not wrong, tragically misinformed, and kinda racist, ok?

[garganteren]

That's not creepy or anything. And yeah, you're just going to do it so it seems normal. But I'm not going to let my guard down.

[He'll sleep with one eye open!]

Who even said they're going to tell everyone? You don't know if that's how the law is going to work. It might just be some people who know. And there are police and things like that. It's still against the law to kill mutants.

[Maybe you should say that like it's a good thing, Eren.]

It has nothing to do with race, it's species. Speciesist. And I am one!

[At least... he's honest about it?]