graveyardsmash | TEST DRIVE MEME

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.

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Scenario One

This is not an upgrade. And as far as body swaps go, it's even weirder than going 'frag actual bodies, I'm going to be a giant head.' (Thanks, boss, for giving him a baseline for craziness in this department.) At least the giant floating head option was still robotic.

This? This is squishy. This is level of squish beyond even what the Maximals have, and that's something. Not to mention there's other annoyances, like a lack of wings and feet. Jetstorm is still getting the hang of standing, swaying a little in place as he works out balance in this new body. It feels clunky and half-blinded and slow.

Not to mention he's now got sore, dark marks forming on the parts he landed on when an attempt to transform and fly off didn't go as expected. (It went THUD. At least thudding into the ground was a familiar, if still aggravating, thing.) And, as far as he can tell, there's no built-in radio with this stupid fragging body. So, if he wants to get in contact with anybody, he has to do it the old fashioned way.

Which would be why there's now some passerbys gawking at the blonde woman who's perched atop a wall, shouting, "Organic squish-sacks of wherever the frag we are! Anybody seen a big pink motorcycle or a giant floating head? Can't miss either of them! ...The pink one is easily distracted by spiders!"

Scenario Three - werewolf

Just when Jetstorm thought he was getting used to this slagheap of a body, something has to change. Isn't that how it always goes? But the sudden burst of pain is enough to make even Jetstorm shut up for a klik.

Well, the pain and whole lot of sudden structural changes making talking really slagging difficult for the moment, really. From the way everything feels, it's like he's doing something akin to the Maximals' transformation sequence, minus the light show and the benefit of expecting what's happening. There's an occasional strangled noise of pain that occasionally drops into something more guttural as fur bursts out, claws replace blunt human nails, and Jetstorm's entire head warps into something distinctly canine.

He pants for a few moments once it feels like everything's stopped transforming, tilting his head at the sensation of a tongue dangling loosely from his jaws. He sits back slowly to check out his forelimbs, flexing the claws to test them. Claws-more than before, but at least that's closer to right. Jetstorm licks experimentally at his newly lengthened jaws with his new tongue, feeling the points that have replaced blunt human teeth. A mouth in any form is still fairly bizarre, in his opinion-but these are sharp, as are the claws. What he is now, he's made to damage.

He can work with that. "Oooh," he says, laughing-barking, really-as he experimentally steeples his claws together. "Upgrade."

It takes Thrust a little longer than anyone could call 'quick' to realize what's happening to Jetstorm, but he refuses to be embarrassed about calling his friend's name while (helplessly) watching the transformation.

It looked slower and a lot more painful than the Maximal method, no matter how they stretched and skewed and twisted.

"Only from human," Thrust says, offering a hand up. "You look like Noble." Only less blue. And hopefully, less inclined to turn into an eyeless, fire-breathing, flying Gila monster and smack Thrust around.

Not that that'd get rid of Thrust. He only just found Jetstorm a handful of solar cycles ago.

"And thank you for ruining the moment," Jetstorm says as he tries to stand up. "I thought that was my job." He's wobbly-he's more used to legs now, but these legs are built differently than human ones. At least the paws supporting him are big and solid-and have sharp claws that are grinding into the ground for traction.

Then he looks thoughtful, his ears splaying out as he concentrates and tries snapping his jaws open a few times, the force of his snaps making him wobble further. He manages to steady himself as he glances back to Thrust. "So much for triggering flamethrower mode. Looks like it's all claws and jaws."

Seems somebody had the exact same train of thought, once Noble's name came up.

Edited 2014-09-21 04:01 (UTC)

Ruining the moment because your presumed-dead cohort scared the slag out of you is completely fair game.

Probably.

The snapping jaws have Thrust standing back. "Better ranged weapons than fire, anyway," he offers. Fire was messy and hard to control, although admittedly it did more damage to organics than to even technorganic Transformers.

He doesn't ask if Jetstorm is all right. Jetstorm is standing and looking for new weapons, so even if he's not all right, he'd probably resent Thrust asking. "... You taller?"

Jetstorm takes a few, still wobbly steps closer to Thrust, so he can compare heights. He tilts his head as he gives a sniff in Thrust's direction-it's no replacement for the sensors he lost, but getting an upgrade to the ones he still has? Hard to complain about that.

"Not as tall as I should be, but taller. Better sensors, taller, built in weapons...still annoyingly organic, but this I can work with."

He rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Now, where's something nice and unsuspecting to test it out on?"

Jetstorm isn't half again Thrust's height, so of course he's not as tall as he should be, but that's the least weird thing that's happened... to Thrust, anyway. "If that thing came with a decent nav system, I'd say woods."

He is not betting on the nav system.

He is not particularly aware one can backtrack with a really good nose.

(He's also not a huge fan of places without roads.)

"No nav system," Jetstorm confirms, his ears and nose twitching as he tests them out. "The ones I still had decided to go into overdrive, though. I can smell the woods from here."

And not smell like before in human mode, where scent only really popped up when he was close to something. This is something he knows is a ways off, and yet he's picking up on it easily. Jetstorm turns in the direction of the scent, beginning to walk in its direction. He's still not entirely steady, but it's still a determined sort of walk. "Hello woods full of helpless woodland creatures. We're going to frolic together."

His tone makes it clear that this is going to be the sort of frolicking that ends with everything a pretty shade of red.

Thrust keeps up-- maybe half a step behind Jetstorm, but not much more than that. He's not going to let Jetstorm go tromp through the woods in a brand-new upgrade alone, because he currently can't process all the ways that would be stupid. (It is a lot of ways.)

"... Looks like you'd be faster on all fours," he observes, tentatively. Very tentatively.

Don't make him find a leash, Jetstorm.

"Isn't it bad enough that I have to use two feet in the first place?" Feet are for Maximals, or for dim, departed Tankorr-people too dumb to manage locomotion without them.

But, Thrust has a point. Four limbs are more to balance on, at least, and balance seems to be one of the sticking points with organic downgrade. Jetstorm splays out his hands-close enough forefeet, especially with those claws to grip with-and lets out an exaggerated sigh. "But, I guess you have to give a new body the full test run..."

He drops down to all four, experimentally shifting his weight a little to get a feel for things before setting off again. His nose goes to the ground without him even really thinking about it-this scent is the woods, and this is the trail of someone who walked by an hour ago, and this was a monster who just ate-after having what felt like a mostly dampened sensory system, the new blast of information is thrilling.

"Fraggin' things don't come with programming updates," Thrust agrees. What kind of upgrade system is that?

Thrust spends most of the walk to the woods keeping an eye on Jetstorm and on their six. Just a perfectly normal human walking his perfectly-normal off-leash werewolf, nothing to break out the torches and pitchforks for.

In between noting that Jetstorm's new shell seems to have olfactory set as its primary sense and glowering away anyone who comes up behind them, curious, Thrust keeps rubbing at his forehead.

Frag, did something bite him? There are bumps above his eyebrows, and they're swollen and tender.

"Yet another reason why squish is inferior," Jetstorm agrees, while temporarily distracted by sniffing at a light post. His tail wags a little as he focuses on a particular scent. "Somebody had a fiesta a few days ago," he says, sounding amused. "Too bad they didn't leave anything for the rest of us to have fun with."

His tongue lolls out as he looks back to Thrust, then cocks his head to the side-it's a movement that's both very canine and very Jetstorm. "Glitch? Or getting that feeling that somehow, we've climbed to the very top of a mountain of weird slag and trying to deal with it?"

"I think somethin' bit me."

He's not as unfamiliar with mosquito bites as he'd like to be, and that's what his forehead feels like right now-- well, maybe not the itch. They're tight and the pressure hurts.

But when he takes his hand away... if those are mosquito bites, they're very evenly spaced. Two large, round bumps just to the sides of his eyebrows are angry and red, and kept company by two smaller ones closer to his hairline.

And Thrust doesn't smell quite as human as he did when Jetstorm got his new nose installed.

It's the scent more than the bumps that invite Jetstorm's curiosity. He steps away from the street lamp and rears back up onto two legs, his ears flicking forward in interest. "Think that would explain the new reading I'm getting?"

He steps closer to sniff at Thrust's head, giving Thrust an unpleasant introduction to what, exactly, werewolf breath smells like. "...Can't quite place it, but it's pinging my radar."

The werewolf breath probably explains Thrust's expression more than the discomfort. "Back the frag up, exhaust-breath." Yep, definitely.

But the scrunch of his forehead pulls at the bumps beside his eyebrows, and one of them splits a little, revealing something black and glittery.

"... Is it me or is that light real bright?"

It's no brighter than it was a second ago.

Jetstorm pulls his head back, but it's more because of the sudden appearance of the extra feature, rather than Thrust's shooing. He steeples his claws as he stares at the split, his ears splaying to the side. "Light hasn't changed, but you have. Either you've got an upgrade in progress...or you head's breaking."

Jetstorm probably shouldn't be allowed to alert people to things like this.

"Frag. Well. Knew that was incoming." Everybody who got fished out of the water changed into something. Thrust was a little frustrated his 'upgrade' isn't planning on waiting until after Jetstorm goes frolicking with the innocent woodland creatures. He closes his eyes for a moment, and starts to shake his head-- then frowns.

Then opens his eyes again.

Then closes them again.

"... Aw, slag."

That's a different go-to swear word.

Meanwhile, Jetstorm is unhelpfully waving a clawed finger in front of the new eye, trying to see if it reacts to the movement. At least he's not trying to poke directly at it?

"So, just to recap," he says as he pulls his hand back, "I get a kick-aft upgrade that, while unfortunately fuzzy, is a warbuild. You get some extra optics and new olfactory signature." He pauses. "Thrust, old buddy, old pal? I think the universe hates you. Just a little."

As Jetstorm waves at the new eye, Thrust's skin splits open over it.

Then the one on his other eyebrow unseals itself.

Thrust still has the human set closed.

"I'm mostly pickin' up light an' movement," he says, which means frag you Jetstorm he can see you. "For now, anyway. Least the ones that opened up don't hurt."

Thrust is aware the universe hates him, but he's also noticed it tends to be kind of bad news, good news. (Jetstorm is proof of that.) "Bet me it's done?" he asks, teasing.

"Frag, no," Jetstorm says, laying his ears back, though his expression isn't really annoyed. "My bet is that you're slower than me, like usual. Give it a few kliks; something will kick in. ...No promises it's a good something."

He pauses. "Actually, I'll bet that it's a bad something. Keep the 'universe hates you' thing going."

Thrust chuckles, and works his eyebrows up and down-- moving the muscles of his face made the first two... eyes, or motion sensors, or whatever they were... pop open, maybe it would work for the last two.

... Oh, frag it all straight to the pit.

"I'll bet," he says, "however bad you think it is? It's gonna get worse."

Probably the only reason Jetstorm hasn't reached the same conclusion Thrust has is that the six eyes aren't in two parallel lines (maybe that they're not all the same kind of eyes). ... Actually...

"Or you're gonna laugh your aft off at me." Could go either way.

"You know that's always a possibility, even when you aren't sprouting new optics, right?" Jetstorm takes a few steps back to get a better look at Thrust overall, tilting his head again.

"And that olfactory signature of yours is going to drive me up a wall. It's familiar, and not in a 'this is my unicyclic compadre's energy signature' kind of way."

The two eyes near his hairline have split open, too. Like the larger set, they're black and solid; they glitter under the streetlight but don't blink. If it weren't for the slightly-raw looking skin around them, Thrust would look like somebody had stuck (slightly austere) plastic gems on his head.

"You'll figure it out," Thrust assures him. That was when Jetstorm would start laughing. "Still wanna kill something?"

"When don't I?" Jetstorm drops back to all fours, turning back in the direction of the woods. "Try to not scare off anything small and defenseless while you're sprouting new body parts. Small and defenseless ones are the most fun."

Then he begins to head back towards the woods again, picking up his pace more than before-he's getting a better feel for movement on all fours.

For as long as it took Jetstorm to get the hang of two feet instead of all hovering all the time, four feet sure looks easier for him.

"Yeah, yeah," and he's not sure whether he should attribute the headache brewing to whatever's incoming or the eyeball surprise that just happened. "That's only 'cause you don't know how to handle a challenge."

When in doubt, mock your best friend.

Four feet have the advantage of giving more to balance on! ...Unfortunately, better, quicker locomotion means Jetstorm has pretty much doubled his chances of pancaking himself into something. Damn you, high speed!

"Not being able to handle a challenge? Moi? Ohhhh no, multiclops, you're the one with challenge issues. All it takes to slow you down is a chance to stare broodily."

Jetstorm | Beast Machines | OTA

Three!

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