Start your engines! Now that Aetherdrift has been out for a bit I thought it would be fun to ask around and see what sort of vehicle or mount Dancing-Hands, Arega, Jaspar, Ranek, Jibea and Madaya would have piloted if they have theoretically participated on the race?
Alright, that's a lot of people. So in addition to some descriptions and the card designs, I'll also have a rating for how close to reality this is, ranging from 0 (no part of this exists and it's pulled from some alternate reality), to 1 (the vehicle/mount exists, but they haven't heard of or wouldn't participate in any Ghirapur Grand Prix races), to 2 (they might actually have considered participating with that mount/vehicle). So, in the same order as in the ask...
Dancing-Hands
Reality Rating: 0 (this Vehicle doesn't exist, AND Dancing-Hands likely wouldn't participate in the race)
Dancing-Hands isn't exactly a racing type. The most likely way to get him there would be as part of efforts to support the Amonkhetu effort. But even there he'd likely not want to undermine their endeavor to show their own skills and abilities. This vehicle, the Psicycle, is one that would likely be born of Kamigawan tech, harnessing Dancing-Hands' powerful short-range telekinesis to power the entire vehicle. As a result, he'd likely be riding it fully laying down in a small cabin to have the engine as close to him as possible.
Arega
Reality Rating: 1 (the ?vehicle? exists, though I don't know if they were even aware of the Grand Prix)
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes... And also a tree?
Arega recently designed and cultivated for themselves a bioship to travel the Space-y plane of Sicarius at their leisure. Of course, they're Simic, so the "ship" is a living organism, though not one that's typically independently aware. Arega doesn't quite ride or pilot it in conventional ways, since they can just inhabit it as their own body, just like they can most of their creations. But it is a ship since it was made to be able to transport their main body as they inhabit the ship... And potentially passengers! There are technically two nested organisms in the full ship, a personal craft that can only carry Arega (or one cramped passenger for a short time) depicted on the card here, and a much larger one that has actual room for up to two passengers as well as living amenities, production of fruit to feed them, and some manual controls.
Built to drift on aether currents or propel itself with wings that power it via photosynthesis, it's unclear how well it would fare in a race, and if it could keep up in speed. But Arega's inhabiting of it as a body would make it much more reactive and intuitive than any Vehicle or Mount/Rider combo.
Jaspar
Reality Rating: 1 (Jaspar can and does occasionally summon echoes as mounts, but wouldn't be interested in a race, nor would these echoes be very suited to one)
Jaspar can bring forth echoes of animals from parts of them, and he's been known to use antlers in the past. While those echoes are temporary until the life left in them is consumed by the magic, they can be pretty versatile, and it's not difficult to imagine Jaspar switching to a few different echoes along the length of the race. That is, if he cared any about all that. Or if they were fast enough to compete, they're mostly as fast as the animals they're summoned from the echoes of. Though they are tireless as long as they last.
Ranek
Reality Rating: 2 (I'm sure Ranek has built an extension to the Stormplate for speed at some point over the last couple centuries. And if he's not, he might if he heard of the race, could get there and thought it a fitting test. He did not actually participate in the race.)
Ranek already has his Stormplate, which is closer to a mech suit than a typical suit of armor. Given his tendency to create magical wonders, the Stormframe Sprinter is an extension to it built for speed and maneuverability. Likely able to shift the bipedal gait to a more effective quadrupedal one for bursts of acceleration. It would be a fearsome contestant in any race it entered, leaping to speeds on par with wheeled vehicles on the road but able of much more agility in rough terrain.
Ranek, who is fond of occasions to prove himself, might even have joined the Grand Prix... But he's currently desparked, mostly retired, and living back home on Kaldheim. He might not have heard of the race, or not in time, or maybe he simply didn't have a ready Omenpath to join it, or lacked a team... Whatever the reasons, he didn't show up for the event.
Jibea
Reality Rating: 0 (Any tech Jibea might have to help their gravity magic would be wearable, not a vehicle, this tech doesn't exist on their home plane anyway, and they'd be unlikely to want to participate in the Grand Prix, even if they might watch it)
A Gravity Slider is designed to help you maneuver while in freefall, and survive any collision or landing. Maximize and minimize terminal velocity both depending on what you want at any given moment. The idea is to redirect gravity into whatever direction you want to go and simply fall towards your objective. Different parts are also designed to minimize or maximize contact friction with any object that passes by (typically the ground). Using the mass of a plane and gravity as its propellant, no fuel is required besides the magic that shifts those forces, that usually comes from the pilot. Something Jibea would very much be able to do, along with using their magic to mess with nearby contestants (or their weaponry) that are NOT made to handle shifting gravity fields.
With that said, as was mentioned in the Reality Rating, this kind of tech doesn't exist on Jibea's home plane, and they certainly didn't have it custom made elsewhere either. They're not really a racer, and there isn't much of a point to participate in those races for them, so it remains very much in AU territory. They do value the display of it and of all these different techniques and technologies and have followed the Grand Prix when possible. They were keeping an eye on the Endriders in particular, sharing some of their plights.
Madaya
Reality Rating: 1 (The Mirage Machine may have existed, though it wasn't a racing Vehicle, and would have likely been sold off at some point. And Madaya isn't a racer)
Back in the days where she was a magician (as in, a stage magician), Madaya may have bought or commissioned the mirage machine from one of the many ambitious inventors on Avishkar. Both something to store her equipment and something capable of projecting room-spanning illusions for her to integrate into some of her more involved spectacles. Sadly, times became rough, she might have had to live off of her mirage machine for a bit, then when the situation became untenable, she likely had to sell it off years ago, before she hit rock bottom and sparked.
But, as an Avishkari girl, she of course is aware of the Ghirapur Grand Prix. Not a contestant herself though. One can imagine that while an illusion van is not really a racing vehicle, she'd be able to wreak quite the havoc on the road by making other racers veer off-course, crash into terrain or each other, or worse.
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New set mean new opportunities for character interactions! So I got to ask how would your ocs interact with the families of New Capenna? Would they throw down in a Riveteers boxing rings, party it up at a Cabaretti function? Or maybe they would get into trouble some other way in the city of angels run by devils?
A few of them found the plane, and a couple of those the city. Dolores feels right at home in New Capenna and some Developments about her happen there, as I might share later on.
Zarunpel winds down in the city through fights. Anedia might appear here and there to grab tools that aren't usually available to her. Jibea only explored the world outside of the city so far, trying to capture what remains of a once beautiful world. Arnoss may have done some bodyguard work there. Possibly more people too, but I'll leave some space for future me to carve.
