Episode 1: The Disorient Express

Test Drive Meme

Welcome to Grief Street! Won't you come and see what awaits you in our game? We've provided a few prompts below so you can brainstorm AU ideas and voice test your character in the setting. Don't feel beholden to anything--this is the space to experiment and see what works and what doesn't, so be bold! If you have any questions, ask below!

i. meet & greet

So, you've ended up on the Disorient Express. Maybe you've got a few connections that snagged you a first-class ticket, maybe this was merely a business expense and you're traveling second class, or maybe you even smuggled on board the train and are hiding out in the luggage car. Do you happen to know why you're traveling, madame or monsieur?

Whatever the case may be, you're now stuck on this train with the other passengers for the next four days. It would be good to meet with the other passengers on board, since you'll be seeing each other so often. Are they strangers? Old friends? Enemies? Whatever their relationship to you, perhaps you'll learn a few new interesting tidbits about their lives.

If you want a place to chat, why not enjoy a conversation in the dining car, where you can feast upon all manner of delicacies? Looks like the menu today--and every day--is oysters, soup with Italian pasta, turbot with green sauce, chicken 'à la chasseur', fillet of beef with 'château' potatoes, 'chaud-froid' of game animals, lettuce, chocolate pudding, and a buffet of desserts. Or, if you're not that hungry, you can make your way to the lounge/bar car to enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two. Those more interested in simply brooding or hanging around can walk to the caboose, where you can look out upon the train tracks and think about the journey ahead....

ii. another day of luxury

The train's staff provides all manner of luxury to its guests. Those in first class cabins receive complimentary champagne when you first step on board, and the next morning, both first and second class passengers wake to a concierge knocking at their door with a basket of decadent Parisian pastries and a pot of freshly brewed tea. Your every need is tended to, and the staff are more than willing to accommodate you. Maybe being stuck on this train for four days isn't so bad, after all.

It seems like someone had the bright idea of setting up a few games in the lounge. Looks like a gaggle of people have set up a makeshift poker table, gossiping among each other about what they've learned about the other passengers aboard the train. A few others are enjoying a round of drinks and something called "truth or drink"--a twist on the classic "truth or dare". A third table is playing two truths and a lie. Boisterous laughter and shouting fills the car. The bartender smiles towards you, wiping down the table and tending to the passengers. What'll you be having, then?

iii. murder in the night

First, the train gets stuck in a snowdrift, delaying your trip. Next, the conductor tells you that one of your fellow guests was murdered! Worse still, he believes that someone on board this train was responsible for the man's death. If they don't find out who did it, well...they'll need to bring everyone in for questioning at the next station.

Do you know who to trust? Perhaps you ought to do a little bit of investigation, yourself, lest you be suspected as the culprit. It wouldn't hurt to try and question people on what sort of secrets they're hiding, either...after all, who knows? Maybe they have a bigger stake in this murder than you think.

iv. optional info blurb

We've provided an optional blurb you can add to your toplevels with information about your character in the AU. Delete/add fields as you see fit, use it however you want!

NAVIGATION

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griefstreet
OOC Community:

dressingrooms
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Character Name: Ruby
Occupation: Current fugitive, former truck driver and criminal, amateur radio operator.
About: On paper, Ruby is a truck driver for an unremarkable Chicago-based logistics company. In reality, Ruby used to manage supply, distribution, and other logistics for a notorious organized crime syndicate, La Puta Madre, based in New York City. After double-crossing La Puta Madre, Ruby fled to Chicago, where she did similar work for the Hardie Boys, a smaller group with connections to the Steelworkers' Union. That, too, went south once Ruby got mixed up with a girl, a murder, and a couple of unconventional cops. She's now fled the country, using the remainder of her money from La Puta Madre to buy a second-class ticket aboard the Disorient Express, where she's going by the alias "Amber" and spending a bit too much time playing poker and brooding.
Looking For: People who knew of Ruby from NYC or Chicago, law enforcement officials or private investigators investigating her disappearance in connection with a Chicago murder and subsequent violent labor protests, fellow runaways or people down on their luck, hot women Ruby can have unwise crushes on.

another day of luxury.

[ For the first couple of days of the journey, no one sees "Amber Smith," save a roommate who knows to keep her mouth shut.

She doesn't emerge to accept tea from the concierge. Once a night, she quietly makes her way to the bar car, head down, for some crackers and a shot of their cheapest whiskey. It's still loads nicer than what she's used to. She's certainly out of place here, dressed more like one of the train's mechanics than an actual passenger.

By day three, "Amber" knows it'll be more suspicious of her to keep this up instead of mingling with the others. She's not interested in talking to most of them -- rich people are generally assholes, after all. But you can catch her at the poker table quietly and unassumingly cleaning the fuck up, or at a window, watching the landscape go by. The gilded decoration of the train is whatever, but this? The world outside?

It's very nearly beautiful.

Wherever you find her, approaching the denim-dressed woman with dyed red hair growing brown at the roots will get you a taciturn: ]

Hey.

murder in the night.

[ Of course. Let's board the most expensive train I can afford, Ruby had told herself. Everyone here will be too concerned with their vacation to mess it up with, you know, murder. She would have been better off hitchiking.

Ruby regards the dead body with the dull disinterest of someone who has seen this shit before, and someone who has been massively inconvenienced.

Still, she knows most of the silver-spooned passengers here aren't used to this. Which means: this is an opportunity for "Amber" to, if not clear her name, at least make herself less likely someone would want to suspect her. She turns to the person nearest her, and ask, not warmly but not unkindly: ]

You good?

Disorient Express Test Drive Meme