JANUARY TEST DRIVE MEME

[rysligmods]

TEST DRIVE

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!
• Ryslig's FAQ is located here, so please take a look if you have questions.


• The Reserve date is 01/29.
• Test drive meme threads can be used for your roleplay sample!
• Players with characters already in the game can earn up to a maximum of 6 coins by replying to potential character threads! You cannot use this to go over the bonus 20 coins per month total, but you can use it 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. Some of these seem to have been passed down from one monster to the next.

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. Sometimes they have marks on them from previous people who had them saying they are lies, or pointing out good "jokes."

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: 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.

SCENARIO FOUR:The claws, the fangs, the pangs of hunger - horrible as they all are, it's manageable given enough time and perseverance. Local monster hunters, though, not so much.

Maybe it started with a few wayward glances on the outskirts of town, critical stares and disapproving whispers, or just the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever it was, deserved or entirely unprovoked, you're being hunted: a handful of aggressive, well-armed humans doggedly chase your trail throughout city streets and out into the open, and if you're not careful (if you don't find help soon) you might wind up as the next trophy kill claim on one of those hunter's walls.

Comments

[hearthebell]

[Admittedly, for one who hasn't seen it before, it's overstated and doubtless fascinating. L wants that contact broken, shaking and wide-eyed, and even though he's technically dead, he still attempts to pull away from Mello's grip, shaking his head, looking every bit as desperate and unhappy as he feels. The muscles in his forearm are taut and tense in Mello's hands, and an unvoiced but very frustrated sound is coiled in the back of his throat.

He shudders noticeably when Mello's finger passes over the covered coin, and then the moment he's released, he recoils warily.

His stricken and rigid face tells a different story, but he nods numbly when Mello asks him if he's all right.]

Do not do that again without warning. I prefer to know...

[It might or might not have to do with his death, because of course, he is extremely frigid, and the blood beneath his skin is perfectly stagnant and pulse-less.]

It's different now. When people touch and hold. The advice is for both of us...

[Because being pulled back into life means risking a draining bite. Perhaps that doesn't need to be said; L certainly hopes so.]

[planmade]

[He's tormenting L, he realizes. That hadn't been his intent, but their talk and now this unwanted contact has left his undead mentor in a sorry state. A nasty little voice in the back of Mello's mind says that at least part of this is deserved. L had left them far too soon. But then he doesn't really have the right to think that, does he? After the mess he'd made of his legacy.

Yet he isn't quite done. His curiosity has gotten the best of him. He doesn't pull back, but instead begins to pull back the sleeve of his jacket (stolen, to help keep off the cold). If L is a vampire, then it's important that he know the limits of the man's restraint, something he won't be able to get simply from asking, no matter how well L thinks he's aware of it.]

Alright. I'll remember. Try to calm down.

[That's probably not the best thing to say now that he's baring his wrist.]

Will it help your nerves if you feed?

[hearthebell]

[L comes very close to standing, promising to find Mello later, and walking right out the door. He's conflicted, because while he must help his successor, Mello is tormenting him. It feels more curious than malicious, but to an insect being prodded by a child admiring its form and structure, intent matters less than the possibility of ending up pinned and struggling.

Though he is impressed that his successor has managed to become very skilled at getting reactions out of people (even him, maybe even Near...?), L knows that he has to turn this around fast.

...and then Mello pulls up his sleeve, showing him that little bouquet of stems standing out under fair skin. L hasn't gone long enough since he last fed to make him desperate, but he is being asked, blatantly, to think of Mello as food, a sacrifice in a chillingly literal sense to his legacy.

He reaches across the table, but it's to close his fingers around the clockwork heart, not Mello's wrist. He pulls it back, slipping it into its pouch under his shirt, feeling the reassurance of a false beat against his chest again.]

What would help my nerves, Mello, is if I didn't have to worry about you courting death at every opportunity.

[planmade]

Heh.

[L's reaction is promising, at least compared to what he'd seen a minute before. The man had been shaken for sure, but he's still in control of himself. The L Mello is familiar with is still there, and that's the most important thing.

He pulls back, slowly tugging his sleeve back into place. It had been a dangerous move, certainly. There was no way for him to know just how long it had been since L had fed, and if he'd faltered he might have drained more than his share.]

I was offering a sip, not a banquet. But I'm glad to see it's not needed.

[And though the thought of his mentor feeding on others might be a little disturbing, he wouldn't expect him to do anything else. Mello knows that once he starts his own transformation (as all signs point to there being no other possibility) that he won't hold off from doing what he has to do. If L couldn't find a way to avoid it in the time given, then Mello isn't going to be so prideful that he'll make the attempt and risk losing control. More damage would be done during a rampage than if the matter was handled with care from the start.]

Don't worry. This might not be much of a second opportunity, but most people don't even get this. No point in squandering it.

[hearthebell]

[Balance has always been a key factor in the formula that keeps Wammy's investigators productive. It's notoriously difficult to get that perfect blend of prodding for reactions and knowing when to back off and play it safe, and while L tends to be better at it than most, his greatest strength is probably methodical adaptation and a willingness to adjust both factors as needed. Unfortunately, it slips past even the most gifted in the orphanage, with so much focus being put on even-tempered logic and deduction that any emotional core is dismissed as unnecessary, and even an obstacle.

As it turns out, both are critical to being a good detective, and L is not the purely logical being that Near did such an uncanny job emulating. Much like Mello, L had needed some temperance; while Watari had taken care of mundane tasks and logistics, he had also been a voice of reason to L's occasional recklessness. Adaptation might be L's greatest boon, but it also makes it easy to resonate with powerful traits in others that he also possesses. What that means is that Mello's very presence is pretty likely to bring out a significantly more volatile side of L.

Time promises to tell just how that might play out. He re-buttons his shirt, hiding his harness once more.]

The reality of being a monster here is that it is needed. Periodically we have to nourish ourselves in ways that most humans are viscerally appalled by. It's a Catch-22 either way. I feed often in small amounts to avoid what happens to the monsters who take the opposite approach: whether you feed on blood, flesh, souls or energy, the longer you go, the higher the chances are that you will be the cause of even more death and damage.

[He glances toward a table where a young couple is on a date, sharing an ice cream sundae. For perhaps the first time in his existence, he's viewing sugar as an ingredient rather than a main course.]

I'm not saying it isn't difficult, but there are ways to eliminate some of the unnecessary difficulty. Having help from the start is an advantage, and hopefully I've offered some reassurance that you don't have anything to fear from me.

[planmade]

I've learned that much already. What I mean is that it's good to see you're not desperate.

[And while L's response is reassuring for now, situations can always come up. He can't be positive that things won't happen differently in the future, especially with the way the man seems to be regarding other people as though he's planning out a buffet in his head. Perhaps the blood of a fellow monster will be less tempting, in which case that would be the only thing about his upcoming changes that isn't negative so far.

He doesn't express any of these concerns. L is right about there being an advantage to having someone here he's already familiar with - especially when that someone is as resourceful as L is. Though he isn't going to tempt him by asking to live with him. It's best that they're not seen together all the time anyway, and Mello needs to have control over his own hideout at least.

His posture relaxes, and he finally picks his chocolate bar back up.]

What do you think I'd be, anyway?

[hearthebell]

[L nods stiffly. Desperation is the last thing a proud person wants to feel, even one who holds his ego as externally as he holds his heart these days. For L, it was never about "Ryuuga," "Ryuzaki" or "Linden" or any of the other aliases, it was about a nameless, faceless legacy. He'll go to great lengths to avoid it, and those with any foresight whatsoever are typically in the same boat when they arrive. He has no doubt that regardless of the monster Mello starts turning into the next time the Fog rolls in, he'll take a similar approach.

As always, he'll do what he has to.

The question is one he absolutely expects. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any kind of satisfactory answer, but he tries to supply one anyway.]

I was very curious about the same when I arrived. I collected a lot of information on the subject and tried to predict it based on the personalities, backgrounds and profiles of those I spoke to, but...

[He pinches the bridge of his nose. This hurts his head. All of it.]

While arachnes are... say, very organized, in general, and vampires are very arrogant in general, and faeries are in general kind and gentle and childlike, it's not a reliable way to make predictions. There's no pattern; some have natures that suit their monsters, others conflict with it. Others might as well be at random for how much sense they make when they start transforming. I thought I'd be a shade, in all honesty, and a vampire was the last thing I would have guessed and probably what I wanted the least, second only to wendigo.

[planmade]

[Isn't that quaint. That sort of unpredictability is just what can be expected from beings that consider themselves deities - if in fact they have any real influence over who becomes what at all. Throw in some similarities, make people think they have some idea of what's going on, then pull the rug out from underneath them. Sounds about right.]

A shade, huh? Is that what you wanted to be? The proverbial creature of darkness that vanishes into shadow at will? I guess that sounds a little like you.

[A form like that would have suited L well in the past, certainly. But is this really the form he expected or simply the one he wanted most?]

I don't think I'll take any guesses. I don't want to jinx myself, and none of the options are going to be any fun in the end.

[hearthebell]

["Quaint" is a word for it, if not one L would have chosen even ironically. He's been tried and stretched thin by the absence of logic for some of this world's processes, and the way it's worn on him shows. Part of that might be thanks to his undeath, though, and another part might well be because of the strain the Kira case was putting on him at the end.]

I didn't want to be anything, but it is what I expected.

[He says it like it sounds a lot like him and no one could possibly miss the similarities. He'd essentially have become a ghost, literally untouchable and incorporeal, and now he's relegated to the existence of a moving corpse.]

I'd say that you're being needlessly superstitious, but... since magic has been proven to exist here, and operate in all manner of absurd ways, superstition is no longer something to criticize too harshly. Maybe you're right, and expecting one monster does jinx you.

[There's a miserable edge of frustration in his tone. It's a second chance, but it's more like purgatory than heaven or hell.]

[planmade]

[With L sounding so frustrated, it's hard not to already feel somewhat defeated by this place - not that he expected to enjoy much of his time there as it was. The other man had always taken on cases with some air of certainty that he could finish them. Mello had fully expected him to be able to take out Kira one on one, and now he can only imagine how that task must have been similarly draining.

Was the quest to defeat these new gods one he was willing to take on? For the first time he finds himself wondering if victory is even possible. He's grateful for the chocolate more than ever, because he can at least find some comfort in the way it slowly melts on his tongue as he thinks.]

We're nothing if not adaptable, right? We'll adjust.

[Not just as human beings, but as detectives. If it takes Mello's presence to spur L on when he needs it most, then so be it. Of course, Mello's opinion of when it's needed and the opinions of others might not always match up.]

Do you share your meals?

[hearthebell]

[L's gaze has settled into something dull and vague, but it sharpens and focuses more at Mello's words. He wants that, and in spite of being unhappy about his circumstances, his successor is right. He's adjusted to them and is thriving in ways, even if it requires some smoke, mirrors and concessions.

Mello being here just means he doesn't have to do it alone, anymore. Because even though he's made connections, gained roommates and information and notice, he hasn't really felt like he was in any kind of company until now. Wammy's always had that effect on him, reminding him, startlingly, that he wasn't the only living person left in a world otherwise comprised of shadow plays and puppet shows.

He'd felt that with Light, too, but that's a topic for a different time.

Nodding to confirm that he shares Mello's determination, L goes on to speak somewhat reluctantly about feeding.]

To hear the others talk about it, vampires have it comparatively easy. I don't have to take lives to survive, and that's a rule. There are some that feed on energy, like faeries, and they share that privilege. A glut of monsters can't easily feed without killing the donor, though, whether it's flesh or souls that sustain them, so sharing does happen. For myself...

[He pauses.]

I recognize the efficiency behind the practice, of course, but it's not my preference. If a fairie, a demon, a vampire and a wendigo are all working together, sharing one human, you're looking at the energy being drained first. Then the soul, leaving that person a shambling shell. The vampire drains them to the point of satiety, and then the wendigo finishes what's left. It might as well be a conveyor belt, and if I can take what I need from those who will walk away, even help me later in return for not ending their lives, I see it as the preferable option.

[Also, living blood is warmer and tastes better, but he doesn't need to color this noble discourse with traces of selfishness and arrogance. A monster that doesn't have to have any part in the death of a human, after all, has no reason to feel the same guilt or shame that those sharing in communal kills likely do.]