Welcome to Ryslig's test drive meme! If you're considering apping here, this is where you can try your characters out in the game's setting. A few things to note:
You can only app ONE character per round so choose wisely.
We now have a Quick Game Facts that simplifies the basic information about the game. Good if you want to see what the game is at a glance!
Lots of people have asked good questions on the FAQ, so do take a look.
The reserve date has been announced (it was changed to the 30th to allow a maximum number of people compared to a Friday).
Test drive meme threads can be used for your roleplay sample!
NEW! Players with characters already in the game can earn up to a maximum of 3 coins by replying to potential character threads! You will need to have your normal 20 comment AC in the game. You cannot use this to go over the bonus 10 coins per month total, but you can use it if you are missing some threads to reach that coin total. Same rules as normal bonuses apply.
Sample scenarios:
SCENARIO ONE: So you've just arrived, fresh out of the hospital, and already the natives are trying to get on your good side. Offers of food, shelter and other luxuries in return for hoping you don't eat them. They even have some helpful pamphlets to share with you. "How To Deal With Changes", "Alternatives to Human Flesh", "What to Expect When You're Expecting (to turn into a monster)" are all great pamphlets. There's even some detailing certain monsters, and the changes they go through.
Among these however, are some... not so helpful ones. "Bunnyipyips And You", "Axe Thief Axehounds," and "So you're becoming a Fur Bearing Trout" among others.
SCENARIO TWO: You've become hopelessly lost in Lager Woods. Paths don't seem to lead where you remember them leading, and you feel as if you're going around in circles. Childlike giggling can be heard from no direction in particular. Suddenly, you stumble upon another character, who seems to be just as lost as you! Perhaps you can find a way out together. Or maybe they want you for lunch...
SCENARIO THREE: You've heard about the fog, but you've never seen it before. Now, the mist surrounds you. Barely able to see before you, you need to get home - and fast. It's far too dangerous in this situation.
SCENARIO FOUR: The time has come and you've found yourself becoming a monster. Is the change instant, or gradual? Are you familiar enough with monsters to know what's happening, or is it a complete shock? NOTE: Feel free to pick any monster type for this prompt, but note that you may not get the same one in game.
“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not going to just leave you here, unattended in this weird forest,” Pearl insists with a gesture at the surrounding flora, leaping right into stern impatience. She has enough to worry about with the possibility of Garnet being missing, without having Steven’s fears to contend with on top of that.
For some reason that comment makes him mad. More mad than is really reasonable, considering the circumstances they are meeting under. There's no way she could understand the implications of that statement, or the things he and these trees have suffered through recently.
He balls his fists, and instead of relenting he pushes back.
Pearl glances at his hands and suddenly looks uncertain, irritation flashing across her features. “Steven, this whole peninsula is weird,” Pearl insists, talking as if it’s obvious that she’s the authority on the matter. “And apparently dangerous too, from everything I’ve heard so far! We need to stick together…” There’s an effort made towards sounding a little more gentle on that last part, but she’s still being firm about this
His eyes shimmer with fresh tears - Steven does not often get mad without getting teary - and he finds himself incapable of not sticking on this subject, even though her point is at least mostly reasonable. There's so much to explain and he doesn't know how to.
"I'm safer here than I am back there!" he says his voice raising with frustration and distress. "At least the trees here understand me!"
Oh no that is it. Get ready for full on exasperated Pearl. She throws her hands up, literally, immensely frustrated by his unusual behavior.
“Steven the trees can’t understand you, they’re trees! They’re incapable of conscious thought!” She groans, and pinches the bridge of her nose between thumb and index finger. “I know you have a special connection with plant life but this is just taking things too far!”
"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?" Steven yells back, and his own tone would shock him were he not already so upset. The thorns vines from his back raise up defensively, as if about to fight off a threat. His voice catches in his throat. "You can't even hear them! You weren't even THERE!"
Even now, Steven feels bad about his outburst only moments later. But without knowing how to follow it up and still too agitated to tone himself down, he succumbs to his own panic and takes off into trees.
Pearl's so startled she falls back onto her butt and sits there looking horrified, the spell only broken when Steven bolts away from her. Yelling at her would be one thing, but those vines- there was something so ominous about that. Steven's never attacked her before.
"Steven!" she yells and reaches after him, distraught. She's up on her feet in a moment and breaks off in the same direction he just ran in, looking around frantically. "Steven you come back here this instant!"
If she sounds angry, it's mostly out of fear, because she's pretty much completely terrified.
He could lose her, if he wanted to. He knows this forest better by instinct than any other type of creature possibly could. He doesn't really want to lose her, though. Not forever. It's like he was underwater, standing there and facing her, and he desperately needed a moment to breathe.
So by the time she catches up with him, he's scurried up onto the lowest bough of one of the overhanging trees. He's still facing away from her. The vines that had been posturing threateningly before have coiled themselves around the tree where he sits, and his rose budded tail swings beneath him with lingering agitation.
He's got his knees hugged to his chest, his roots gripping the bark. He's shivering with his own quiet, shuddering breaths. He doesn't say anything. He feels like he's really messed things up.
When she catches up to him, winded from both exertion and panic, she's all ready to give him a stern lecturing, but... Well, he looks so damn miserable, it takes the wind right out of her sails.
Pearl doesn't say anything right away. She just walks up to the tree, puts a hand thoughtfully against the bark for a moment... then she shimmies up the trunk and grips on to the end of his branch and looks at him sadly.
He looks almost in her direction, and then nods very slightly, staring back at the ground. He could feel her coming in the grass. He's glad she didn't yell at him, even if he just had. He wipes one of his eyes with his hand.
"I'm sorry I yelled," he says quietly. From this angle, it's easier to see the blackened scorch marks on his shoulders, as if imprinted by touching hot metal.
Pearl clambers up onto the branch and settles next to him. Her long legs dangle off the branch, making her stick out like a sore thumb in the foliage. It's kind of hilarious in contrast to Steven, who looks like he could be a part of the tree in a way.
"It's alright," she says with a sigh. She's still frustrated with him, but it's hard to be too mad, considering...
She crosses her feet delicately, starts to reach out to him with a comforting touch, but falters when she notices his shoulders. "Steven, what...?"
He doesn't know what she's asking about, and so it forces him to look up. He seems startled and almost afraid when he notices what she's looking at. He folds a hand over the burns nearest to her, as if hiding them will make them not exist.
"It's just-" he stammers, but doesn't actually know where he's going with that. "Sometimes, humans do bad things..." It's like he's trying to quote something or to sound wise and zen, but instead of finishing the sentence he covers his eyes with his hands and starts crying in earnest.
He sniffles and shivers in her arms, beginning to shake his head with his face still covered in his hands. It's hard for him to speak clearly.
"Some of the humans that lived here started hunting us down," he says, voice wavering. "They...they killed a bunch of us and I...I tried to talk to them but they chained me up and hurt me."
"Because we have to eat people. They hate us so much."
His summary of everything that happened leaves Pearl horrified and utterly outraged. Unfortunately, it's not hard for her to imagine that someone would want to hurt a sweet, innocent kid like Steven; Jasper had given her a refresher on that pretty thoroughly when she headbutted him in the face and kidnapped them all. But to hear of other humans doing such a thing is quite a different matter...
"That's horrible!" she exclaims, sitting up straighter. "Persecuting people with a condition that they can't help, it's repugnant, it's, it's..." Pearl stammers, clenches her fists and then makes a wordless huffing sound, unable to articulate her emotions on the matter. The injustice of it fuels some kind of righteous fury, but there's absolutely nothing for her to direct it towards. All she can do is try and repurpose it towards comforting Steven, and wrap him in a tight hug.
The things Link had said to him comes freshly to mind, and he shivers in Pearl's arms. He wishes he could feel as indignant about it. Like he could feel it wasn't justified.
"What if they're right," he says, voice heavy with tears. "We...We hurt people. Even if we don't want to." He closes his eyes tightly. "They just don't want us to hurt anyone else."
Pearl makes a disgruntled noise, sounding like she's going to launch off into a rant, but... No. Steven has a point.
She's silent for a moment before she answers. "It's not wrong of them to want to defend themselves, but... That doesn't mean they're right, Steven!" The very thought of it fills her with anxious dread, making her volume increase involuntarily. Exhaling, her hand on his shoulder tightens its grip ever so slightly before she continues. "It doesn't give them the right to generalize and persecute an entire group of people."
He looks up at her, his eyes sparkling with tears and deeply filled with sadness and regret. Somehow he feels like he's been robbed of the ability to even feel like he deserved better than the treatment he got.
"But what if I'm bad?" he cries, pink tears heavy on his cheeks.
"Steven..." Pearl pulls back, smiles sadly, looking a little misty-eyed herself. She moves to gently wipe away some of his tears and--
Oh god they're sticky, she wasn't expecting them to be sticky. Fortunately she succeeds at not looking too disgusted, and subtly wipes her hand on the tree branch without breaking stride.
"You're not bad. In fact I think you're the most good person I've ever met. Would a bad person have tried to resolve things peacefully, like you did?"
He doesn't notice, thankfully. He's too busy hanging on her words, clearly desperate for any sort of validation, as recently his self esteem has been incredibly lacking in that regard. And Pearl is important. She's super important, and he wants her approval.
So, he actually does seem to find value in her assessment, though he still feels trapped and lost. He pushes back forward to bury his face against her chest.
"I wish there was someone who could just bubble me like the broken gems. So...So I wouldn't hurt anyone, and I could sleep until someone could fix...could fix me."
Srry stupid touch pad on this dumb laptop posted my comment before I was done 8|
Pearl lets him stay right where he is, for as long as he needs to. Watermelon juice on her shirt is a reasonable sacrifice to make, if it means Steven gets some of the comfort he needs. Plus, as terrible as all of this is, it's kind of soothing on her intense anxiety, to feel needed in some way.
"You don't need to be bubbled," Pearl says firmly. "We'll figure something out together, and I should still have a good month left before... before..."
Ugh, she can hear the tension creeping back into her own voice... "A-anyway," she laughs nervously, "the point is, three heads are better than two. I know it's hard, Steven, but we'll figure something out. Somehow..." she says more quietly at the end.
Steven is quiet for a little while after that, like the upcoming optimism is a heavy weight to bring to the surface. But he manages it. He smile a little, and then adjusts his hug to something warmer and gentler.
"Yeah," he says. "It's...It's like a mission, right? We can do it..."
"Yeah. Exactly like that," she says with a warm smile. Even if none of them have any of their powers. That's fine. Steven's optimism is the most reassuring thing there is.
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graveyardsmash2015-05-23 05:28 pm
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"I don't...want to go back there, yet," he says. It doesn't really explain anything, but its as far as he can get for now.
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He balls his fists, and instead of relenting he pushes back.
"They're not weird," he says.
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“Steven, this whole peninsula is weird,” Pearl insists, talking as if it’s obvious that she’s the authority on the matter. “And apparently dangerous too, from everything I’ve heard so far! We need to stick together…” There’s an effort made towards sounding a little more gentle on that last part, but she’s still being firm about this
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"I'm safer here than I am back there!" he says his voice raising with frustration and distress. "At least the trees here understand me!"
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“Steven the trees can’t understand you, they’re trees! They’re incapable of conscious thought!” She groans, and pinches the bridge of her nose between thumb and index finger. “I know you have a special connection with plant life but this is just taking things too far!”
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Even now, Steven feels bad about his outburst only moments later. But without knowing how to follow it up and still too agitated to tone himself down, he succumbs to his own panic and takes off into trees.
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"Steven!" she yells and reaches after him, distraught. She's up on her feet in a moment and breaks off in the same direction he just ran in, looking around frantically. "Steven you come back here this instant!"
If she sounds angry, it's mostly out of fear, because she's pretty much completely terrified.
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So by the time she catches up with him, he's scurried up onto the lowest bough of one of the overhanging trees. He's still facing away from her. The vines that had been posturing threateningly before have coiled themselves around the tree where he sits, and his rose budded tail swings beneath him with lingering agitation.
He's got his knees hugged to his chest, his roots gripping the bark. He's shivering with his own quiet, shuddering breaths. He doesn't say anything. He feels like he's really messed things up.
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Pearl doesn't say anything right away. She just walks up to the tree, puts a hand thoughtfully against the bark for a moment... then she shimmies up the trunk and grips on to the end of his branch and looks at him sadly.
"Do you have room for one more...?"
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"I'm sorry I yelled," he says quietly. From this angle, it's easier to see the blackened scorch marks on his shoulders, as if imprinted by touching hot metal.
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"It's alright," she says with a sigh. She's still frustrated with him, but it's hard to be too mad, considering...
She crosses her feet delicately, starts to reach out to him with a comforting touch, but falters when she notices his shoulders. "Steven, what...?"
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"It's just-" he stammers, but doesn't actually know where he's going with that. "Sometimes, humans do bad things..." It's like he's trying to quote something or to sound wise and zen, but instead of finishing the sentence he covers his eyes with his hands and starts crying in earnest.
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Pearl scoots a bit closer and delicately puts an arm around his shoulders, holding him to her side, brow furrowed with worry. "Who did this to you?"
She asks the question gently, but it's still a demand.
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"Some of the humans that lived here started hunting us down," he says, voice wavering. "They...they killed a bunch of us and I...I tried to talk to them but they chained me up and hurt me."
"Because we have to eat people. They hate us so much."
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"That's horrible!" she exclaims, sitting up straighter. "Persecuting people with a condition that they can't help, it's repugnant, it's, it's..." Pearl stammers, clenches her fists and then makes a wordless huffing sound, unable to articulate her emotions on the matter. The injustice of it fuels some kind of righteous fury, but there's absolutely nothing for her to direct it towards. All she can do is try and repurpose it towards comforting Steven, and wrap him in a tight hug.
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"What if they're right," he says, voice heavy with tears. "We...We hurt people. Even if we don't want to." He closes his eyes tightly. "They just don't want us to hurt anyone else."
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She's silent for a moment before she answers. "It's not wrong of them to want to defend themselves, but... That doesn't mean they're right, Steven!" The very thought of it fills her with anxious dread, making her volume increase involuntarily. Exhaling, her hand on his shoulder tightens its grip ever so slightly before she continues. "It doesn't give them the right to generalize and persecute an entire group of people."
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"But what if I'm bad?" he cries, pink tears heavy on his cheeks.
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Oh god they're sticky, she wasn't expecting them to be sticky. Fortunately she succeeds at not looking too disgusted, and subtly wipes her hand on the tree branch without breaking stride.
"You're not bad. In fact I think you're the most good person I've ever met. Would a bad person have tried to resolve things peacefully, like you did?"
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So, he actually does seem to find value in her assessment, though he still feels trapped and lost. He pushes back forward to bury his face against her chest.
"I wish there was someone who could just bubble me like the broken gems. So...So I wouldn't hurt anyone, and I could sleep until someone could fix...could fix me."
Srry stupid touch pad on this dumb laptop posted my comment before I was done 8|
"You don't need to be bubbled," Pearl says firmly. "We'll figure something out together, and I should still have a good month left before... before..."
Ugh, she can hear the tension creeping back into her own voice... "A-anyway," she laughs nervously, "the point is, three heads are better than two. I know it's hard, Steven, but we'll figure something out. Somehow..." she says more quietly at the end.
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"Yeah," he says. "It's...It's like a mission, right? We can do it..."
They always had before.
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