graveyardsmash | TEST DRIVE MEME

TEST DRIVE MEME



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: The State of the Game Discussion produced a lot of great suggestions and we now have a post for Plot Suggestions and Monster Questions. The NETWORK VOTE results are in and PRIVATE MESSAGING will be added some time in November. Lots of people have asked good questions on the FAQ, so do take a look. You can only app ONE character per round so choose wisely. Reserve and application dates have been announced. Test drive meme threads can be used for your roleplay sample! Sample scenarios: SCENARIO ONE: You've just been released from the hospital in Vandare and no one really seems to know what to do with you. The locals offer polite advice but don't seem to want to spend a lot of time with you. You and the other new arrivals stick out like sore thumbs, so perhaps one will spot you wandering about town. 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. 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It isn't pity. [ she replies briskly, finding someplace to set down the rest of the cloth she's holding. ] I'm not surprised that you'd see it as such, though.

[ miki sayaka, who tried to be self sufficient as a magical girl, a hero, and time and time again fell short of her own ideal self-concept and still refused help until every ill-fated end.

truthfully homura herself doesn't know what it is. the ribbon in her hair is a reminder of what she must be, and madoka would have forgiven, had forgiven, but homura isn't madoka. calling it compassion sits wrong in her mind. too much has happened between them, and homura can't simply forget.

in that vein.

once, some lifetimes ago, they had managed to be friends. perhaps this is just her respecting that, now that sayaka's foolhardy tendencies aren't directly threatening to bring others down with her. ]

( she doesn't have the energy to argue: she doesn't even have the desire to. not due to some newfound appreciation for the girl, but because her head is pounding and homura is just going to do whatever she wants anyway. she remains silent for a few seconds, her fists tightening; she feels a sharp pain in her leg as she squeezes, one of her new, hard nails piercing into her skin.

she doesn't cry out, but she takes a sharp breath, and some of her frustration escapes on the exhale. ) Why is this happening again?

I don't know.

Perhaps, [ she says, with the distinct detachment of previous timelines ] the wraiths weren't enough.

[ cause and effect, equal and opposite reactions. it would be fitting for their lives, even now, to be a zero sum game. the disappearance of witches would have been too good for any of them to expect, wouldn't it? it's an idle thought.

even the idea of it just makes madoka's final sacrifice ring hollow. homura abandons the line of thinking. ]

It's nothing new to us, by this point. Self-pity is meaningless.

[ 'at least we're used to it.' ]

I'm not - ( feeling sorry for myself! she cuts herself off, realising that yes she is, unsure what else she can do about it, unhappy that homura is calling her out. she raises up her head, straightens her back, but keeps her hands out of sight and tucked around her legs. her eyes are red and exhausted, from lack of rest as much as fear. ) It's not the same. ( how can she be okay with it? how can it just be accepted? )

[ homura's mouth thins. even now, then? ]

You're right, it isn't.

We know, are aware of what's happening to us now. We are in a better position to be dealing with the matter as it happens, rather than carry on in ignorance until the ugly truth is revealed.

[ it isn't as if she herself isn't frustrated with- with everything, but if there's nothing else she's learned, then it's that time stops for no one. no matter what happens, you'll have to find a way to carry on regardless, through sheer force of will if necessary.

it's too easy to look down on sayaka sometimes (and that is why homura will never be as good a person as madoka is), and what she says next might as well be as much a product of that bitterness as it is her trying to goad the other girl into some reaction that isn't curling up and whining about it. ]

Miki Sayaka, why are you giving up?

( she can't help but narrow her eyes, her eyebrows drawing together. she doesn't understand how homura can always be so cold, so detached - and at the same time, so superior. would it kill her to care about something?

would it kill her to be scared about this too? because sayaka is scared, and it galls that homura's lecture is correct, because it feels pretty sudden to sayaka: maybe not as much as last time, but enough that she can't just be an emotionless machine about it. (of course, she can't be like that about anything, really.)

so she raises her chin defiantly at the final challenge, because it's a very direct hit indeed. )

I never said that! What about you? ( she throws back, challenging her feelings if not her words. ) You really don't care about anything, do you? A normal person would care about turning into something else! A normal person - ( is not something she is anymore, is it? was she ever?

no. not that path again. her fingers dig into her skin. ) wouldn't put up some cold act and show up just to lecture me!

I never claimed to be normal. [ sayaka shouldn't, either. they surrendered that right upon making their contracts; but then again their life didn't suit everyone. only another reason that the other girl should never have become a magical girl in the first place.

sayaka putting it that way though. homura's eyes flash, her expression goes icy even if nothing visibly changes. does she care? even something like kyuubey cared, if only for its own goals. ] Of course I care. Do you imagine me to be happy about this, Miki Sayaka? Happy that we are here, happy that Madoka is? I know full well we didn't have a choice in the matter. I know what's happening to us.

[ there's too much out of her control, too much unfamiliar. if she succumbs to that--

she has to maintain what vestiges of her control are left. ]

The best we can do is to handle it as well as we can.

( she responds to that flash of almost-anger, even if homura's voice doesn't really change; it feels more, authentic; more honest; okay, she's a person after all. sayaka wonders sometimes. she sucks in a breath through her nose and holds it, the smell of blood and sweat unpleasant around her. i am handling it as well as i can, she almost wants to argue, but that's not true, is it?

still - to be lectured by her, of all people… with visible effort, not just from the pain but from stiffness borne of tension, sayaka uncurls herself, pushes her feet under her and tries to stand, revealing bruised legs and dirty hands. she has to brace herself against a wall as the blood rushes out of her head; she gives homura a look that is anything but icy; cold. )

I don't need you telling me how to act.

Then don't act in a way that requires my doing so.

[ there, that's better, she's accomplished what she set out to do, she would think, if she were purely objective and uninvested, as she should be. there's still that flicker of vengeful impulse that's taken root and curled itself around her thoughts, though, all too prominent now and whispers that she could act in spite, twist the knife, it's only fair.

homura holds sayaka's gaze for a long moment before closing her eyes, nodding, and tossing her hair all in the same movement. her next actions are to turn back toward the door and head toward it before she's tempted to act on those impulses. she pauses only once, in the threshold, to offer one last comment: ]

There are painkillers on the shelf. They aren't much, but you'll have to manage.

( if sayaka had a grief seed for every time homura flipped her hair, she would never have had the life she ended up with.

the petty part of her, the angry part of her, wants to reject the medicine, throw it at the back of homura's head in rejection of her pity and superiority — but she resists that impulse, sinking back against the wall with a loud and frustrated huff.

honestly.

it pains her, and she waits until homura is out of sight, but she does finally call after her a half-hearted ) Thanks. ( for the pills. definitely not for the loving support.

loser. )

Edited 2014-09-24 02:36 (UTC)

TEST DRIVE MEME

what a coincidence. . .

who is stalking who. . .

good question. . .

watches carefully. . .

watches right back. . .

gazes deeply into your eyes . . .

looks blankly back at. . .

shatters your jaw with a single punch. . . . . . . . . . . .

um wow??? godmoding much???

whatcha gonna do???