TEST DRIVE MEME

[ryslighelpers]

TEST DRIVE MEME: SEPTEMBER

Welcome to the Ryslig Test Drive Meme! Below are a few prompts to get you started, but you may make up any prompt you desire! Please take a look at the navigation page for rules, setting information, and links to reserves and apps. Have fun!

SCENARIO ONE

You wake up on the beach thoroughly drenched with your mouth full of sand. The salt water causes various cuts and scrapes on your skin to sting and the sand isn't helping. The air is slightly humid, ruining any feeling of refreshment you might have gotten from your dip in the ocean. There are lights in the distance but the unfriendly scent of gunpowder fills the air. If you're lucky, you're alone. If not, you might find yourself staring up into a pair of monstrous eyes or down the barrel of a local's shotgun.

SCENARIO TWO

So you've just arrived, and already SOME 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." Then there's the people who aren't happy to see you at all. Glares and silent, judging stares if you're lucky. Torches and pitchforks attempting to drive you out of the town if you're not. You may need a friend to help you.

SCENARIO THREE

"Seek us out," the voice whispers in your head, and before you have time to question it you've found yourself in someplace entirely alien. Maybe it's the Fog God's ghostly town of Dyster, where exultant followers dance around bonfires and sing their praises to the skies above. Maybe it's the Fourth God's arcade, with small robots wheeling about amidst the lights and colors of old pinball machines. Only one thing is certain: you are not alone, in this sacred place.

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.

Comments

[catphishing]

[The human captive takes advantage of the opportunity to flee as soon as she lets her go. Oliver's a little bitter at the lack of support, but it's not surprising. Could he really blame her even if the humans in this town didn't hate monsters so much? She got away, and hadn't that been what Oliver wanted?]

Oliver.

[Just his name doesn't seem likely to convince her to lower that knife though. He has to tell her what she wants to hear, and if she's new that's got to be answers. Where she is. What's happening. Who brought her here. Those are always the things people want to know.]

Did you just wake up here? You did, right? You don't have to threaten people to get answers. Just ask. Monsters anyway. Humans are usually a little less friendly to newcomers.

[He's not entirely coherent under imminent threat, and he seems to realize it, slowing his babble down long enough to take a breath. He does glance over his shoulder briefly, as though assessing his odds at getting away if he has to run.]

I can answer your questions. I just have to know what they are.

[rambunctiousgirl]

[Oliver's body language isn't lost on Peko. She notes the babbling, the glancing, the little twitches.

He's afraid, despite his size, and though he may be faking it.... she lowers her knife. It's still in her hand, mind, but not quite so threatening.]

Monsters?

[She asks, her eyes narrowing-- no, she's squinting, and even leaning forward a little. Without her glasses she can't see him as well, and though she knows he's got things that no human should have.. she didn't really expect the immediate answer to be "Oh, it's chill, I'm a monster and we're friendly."

Her other hand raises to shove at the bridge of her nose by habit as she waits for a response.]

[catphishing]

[His posture immediately relaxes, though that doesn't make her any less dangerous. It's one thing to confront someone attacking someone else, but having the weapon turned on him is a completely different matter. He's not brave or a hero. Anything exciting he's ever done has either been from behind the safety of a computer screen or hasn't gone that well for him.

Next time maybe he should accept that in advance. For now he's going to have to stick this out. Still, for all his nervousness his mind is still working on how to get out of this situation alive. She doesn't know what's happening, which means she needs him for answers. She's smaller than he is, but armed, and he's no fighter in the first place. He needs to avoid fighting her. He's in good physical shape though and he's not backed up against anything if he needs to run. He knows Vandare better than she does too. And, judging by the squint and all too familiar way she's touching her nose she's short sighted too. Unlike him, she doesn't have her glasses.

He hopes it won't come to the point he has to fight or get away from her though. She's scared. He was too when he first washed up here. It would be better if he can keep her calm, make her understand he's not a threat to her. He nods, smiling in what he hopes is a reassuring manner. Maybe her vision is still good enough to at least get a hint of it.]

Right. I'm a faerie, but there are lots of other kinds too. The humans are all from here, but every monster here washed up just like you did. We get what it's like. Most of us want to help you.

[rambunctiousgirl]

[In all actuality, Peko'd rather not hurt anyone at all. Her intent with her target had been only to frighten them into giving her information, but... well, this has had the same effect.]

A faerie... [She repeats, obviously not quite sold, judging by the way she's said it.]

I don't understand. I'm... I'm not supposed to be here.

[catphishing]

[He understands the skepticism. Even faced with everything he'd struggled to come to terms with what was going on in Ryslig. Sometimes he still finds things hard to wrap his head around.]

None of us are, but... we don't know how to leave. We're stuck here. I'm sorry.

[That's always the hardest part to tell people, the part they really don't want to accept. They all come from somewhere and most of them want to go back to it.]

[rambunctiousgirl]

No-- no, that's not...

[She sighs. Of course he wouldn't know.]

I... should be dead.

[That might explain the oddly hole ridden nature of her clothes, something the sea wouldn't quite manage on its own.]

[catphishing]

Oh.

[That's not unheard of either, but more unusual, and a revelation he's not quite sure how to deal with.]

Isn't this better than being dead?

1/2 sorry I can't avoid using game things

[rambunctiousgirl]

[...]

[rambunctiousgirl]

...You tell me.

[catphishing]

[He doesn't know how to answer that. He has died here, but does that even really count? It's hard, but not in the same way as if he knew he'd died back in Philadelphia. At least here it isn't permanent. He shrugs awkwardly.]

I don't know.

[rambunctiousgirl]

[There's a pause, and Peko tilts her head to the side just a bit.

Oliver, you... really don't have the aura of anything threatening. At all.]

...I'm not asking for support. I just wanted information.

[She hopes that will relieve.... some of his tension, at least.]

[catphishing]

[Excuse you, his aura is terrifying.]

Okay. [He doesn't sound convinced that support isn't what he should be giving her, but maybe it's not something that should be coming from a total stranger.]

You aren't the first person in your... situation. The Fog God brings everyone who's not from here. Then she turns us into monsters. Like me.

[rambunctiousgirl]

A god?

[Peko's shoulders slack, and then she crosses her arms. She's tired, and cold, and of course.]

Then it really is hell. [Of some kind.

She uncrosses her arms and looks down at her hands, and though they sting and are scratched up, they're normal to her-- which, in all honesty, is strange, all things considered.]

How long?

[She isn't really sure what answer she's looking for there-- how long he's been there, or how long until their fate begins.]

[catphishing]

I don't think you usually find gods in hell.

[Not that he knows that much about it. Maybe he should be talking to the people he knows who do know. He's still struggling to wrap his head around it being real in the first place, but people he knows and trusts have insisted it is. Ryslig is somewhere else entirely.]

How long for what? How long you'll be here?

[He's not sure if that's what she means, but it's his best guess.]

I don't know. Some people aren't here for long at all, but some people have been here for years. More than two. I haven't heard of anyone being here for three years yet.

[rambunctiousgirl]

...Strange.

[But Peko doesn't react much more than straightening her posture again and dropping her hands.

In her head she's going over how ridiculously familiar this is. Showing up on some deserted island-- well, this one isn't deserted, but-- shit.

How can it all be happening again?]

And when do we begin to change?

[catphishing]

The next fog. It's usually at the end of the month.

[She's reacting pretty well, but then again that doesn't seem uncommon here. Most people seem to have better first reactions than he did.]

[rambunctiousgirl]

...I'm going to assume there's no way to leave this place before then, or no other options?

[yeah she's getting real sick of waking up on foreign islands]

[catphishing]

None that we know work.

The Fourth God says he wants to help us leave, but there's no real proof he can do that.

you are not obligated to continue this but I'd love to!

[rambunctiousgirl]

Fourth God.

[A sigh.]

There isn't any literature about this, is there?

I live for back tags!

[catphishing]

Not that I know of.

That's probably for the best though. I think the only people who'd be motivated enough to write it would be really biased.

[rambunctiousgirl]

[Peko isn't even trying not to look annoyed.]

...Forgive me. I was just in a very similar situation prior to arriving here.

[She's already a HUNDRED percent done.]

[catphishing]

You were?

[HE does look perplexed at that. There are a lot of different places here, many that sound drastically different to his own safe, boring version of Earth.

Finding someone who says she was in a similar situation already is a new one though.]

[rambunctiousgirl]

To put it as simply as I can... Members of my class and I, on our first day of school, were kidnapped to an abandoned chain of islands that may have once been a resort.

That... is exactly why I shouldn't be here.