TEST DRIVE MEME

[rysligmods]

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.

Comments

heeeeeey

[kolus]

“Look back too long and you’ll miss what’s in front of you.”

Accompanied by laughter, sound advice seemed more like ridicule. However, this was nothing new with Stan, who at the moment looked quite satisfied with himself. In the fragmented light that peaked between the trees he could just make out the priceless expression that made it all worthwhile. Scaring kids never got old, even if that kid was his nephew.

Unfortunately, he did not deserve all the credit for the scare. Dipper seemed more on edge than usual. Something must have spooked him well before his grunkle could. The question was whether he should have felt the same lack of ease. So far he had carried himself through the woods with about as much caution as a drunk bull. ...kind of a weird place for a bull to be, in the middle of the woods, but that wasn't the point. Hopefully the only mystery to follow the Pines here was how anyone managed to get any sleep around them. Any woodland inhabitants Stan had failed to wake prior were certainly awake now but at least they didn’t have any real monsters to worry about, right?

"Shadow chasing you?" he asked in amusement.

[pinevestigator]

Once Dipper's heart has had a chance to return to a somewhat normal rate, he makes a face and stiffly pulls himself to his feet, brushing off the front of his shirt. As aggravating as that was, he's more relieved than anything else to see Stan. Finally, finally someone he knows.

"No, but I wish I knew what was," He grumbles, pulling down the edges of his shirt to smooth out the wrinkles before turning his attention back up to Stan, his brows furrowed in an expression of deep concern far beyond his years. "There's something out here. I just...don't see it." Or can't, since that distant laughter still persists.

Then, a thought strikes him.

"H-hey, have you seen Mabel around? I've been looking for her for days now."

[kolus]

"You mean she's not with you?" That didn't bode well. Forget about days; Stan couldn't recall a time he'd seen one without the other for longer than ten minutes. He looked around as if he expected her to jump out from a tree.

He had to stay sharp with Mabel around. You never knew when a flash make-over would occur. Slow reflexes only rewarded him bedazzled suits and painted finger nails. He probably should have known better than to fall asleep in front of the television. That twerp with all the piercings kept looking at him when he came to the shop to distract Wendy from work. Stan shuddered.

Never again.

"Huh." He scratched his head and turned back to Dipper. "Thought for sure you kids would have an escape raft ready on the coast of the Peninsula." How else would they get here? They couldn't have... Dipper hadn't been pulled from the docks, had he?

[pinevestigator]

Dipper shakes his head slowly, letting out a breath of frustration as he takes his hat off for a minute to run his fingers through his hair.

"I wish. I woke up in a hospital here with weird scratches and bruises all over. If something happened to us, I don't remember it at all," He explains with an edge of uncertainty to his voice as he lets his gaze wander the forest while he speaks, putting his hat back onto his head.

"Nobody else here seems to have seen her either...so either she's not here for whatever reason....or something else is going on. But if you're here, she's got to be! Right?"

[kolus]

At a sudden lack of ease, Stan shifted his gaze to the tree tops as he listened to his nephew speak. Waking in unknown places with unexplained injuries was not a first for him. It took him back, though the nostalgia was not nearly as comforting as he had hoped. He could still charm the townsfolk for a warm bed and hardy meal but their eyes didn’t lie. Behind their smiles he could see fear. Maybe it was better that way.

“I don’t know.” He replied, unable to give Dipper the answer he needed, let alone look at him. His voice was gruff but calm. “Sorry, kid.” For the kids sake he hoped she wasn’t here. There were too many dangers and babysitting was not on his list of priorities. What if something happened to one of them on his watch? What if he couldn’t protect them? He glanced briefly at Dipper before looking away again. From what Dipper had told him it seemed like he was off to a bad start as it was.

Stan cleared his throat. “Doesn’t look like we’ll be getting any bowling done here… Guess we’ll have to settle for pickin’ locks.”

He smiles and jostles Dipper’s hat to the side when he rubs the boys head. The grunkle would never admit it but in the short time he’d spent here he had missed Dipper. The kid had really grown on him and maybe it was about time he taught him this stuff. Knowing a few tricks could really help the kid out in a place like this.

[pinevestigator]

"H-hey-!" Dipper says with a small half-smile he can't quite keep off his face when Stan ruffles his hair, reaching up to turn his hat back into place. While it probably is better that Mabel isn't here for all of this, Dipper can't help but feel empty without his twin sister by his side. Stan was right in thinking that they were usually never apart- it's because they weren't, and Dipper didn't like it.

"It's fine. If she's here, we'll find her. ...but in the meantime, I guess we should probably try to find a way out of this forest." Dipper continues, looking up into the tree canopy above them.

The thickness of the trees surrounding them makes it hard for any sunlight to make it through, resulting in a very dark place to be in. It makes for a rather ominous atmosphere, somehow even more so than the forests surrounding the Mystery Shack.

canon point ? I’m caught up atm so anywhere works /o/

[kolus]

Leaving was something they could both agree on. Despite the desire to ‘educate’ the children whose laughter still taunted him in the distance, Stan did not care to spend longer there than he already had. He had what he needed and before encountering Dipper, it had not occurred to him just how long he had spent wandering the forest. Was it only an hour or had it been three? He wasn’t sure. His watch had stopped working after he arrived to Ryslig and the fleeting light offered no aid.

“You still carry that light around?” he asked, bent down to examine the floral at the base of one of the encompassing trees. Assuming the kid still had it, black light was better than no light.

I'm caught up too other than Soos and the real girl! I missed it but will catch it soon OTL

[pinevestigator]

"Well I did, but when I woke up here I didn't have anything on me." No black light, no journal. Nothing but the clothes on his back. "So I'm guessing all of my stuff is back home. I hope..."

He walks over to where Stan is as he talks, pushing his hands into the pockets of his vest. He honestly wished he had it with him. It would have made trying to get out of this forest a whole lot easier of an undertaking.

I don't think I will ever get over Sock Opera

[kolus]

"What?" Stan looked back at Dipper and scowled. "That's Mystery Shack property! That lamp cost me twenty... Thirty dollars. That's comin' outta your pay."

He hoped the lamp was the only thing Dipper had lost. If the wrong person got their hands on that journal... He pushed the thought aside and focused on the flowers. Nope. Not happening. Not even going to ask. Stan could only deal with one problem at a time.

"Keep an eye out for more of these." he instructed. "They might just lead us outta here. I saw some earlier. The colours look like those from the Medicine Wheel; yellow for East, red for South, white for North, and black for West." Stan paused. "... You know, from Mabel's guide to rainbows or whatever?"

It was not as though he would know anything about Native American symbols.

SOCK OPERA WAS AMAZING

[pinevestigator]

"No way, it's probably back at the Shack! It can't be lost!" That would mean the journal was lost, too, and Dipper didn't even want to think about that. Not knowing that Stan was considering the same thing, he turned his attention to the flowers his great uncle points out.

"Alright. Whatever gets us out of this place quicker," Dipper mumbles, tugging on the brim of his hat in an anxious gesture as he sticks close behind Stan, waiting for him to lead the way.

there's not enough character space in this subject box to express my love for Bipper

[kolus]

“It better be.” He growled, hoping the same for anything else Dipper might have misplaced.

Stan too had lost his share of possessions upon arrival. Two pairs of loaded dice, a marked deck of cards, a handful of smoke bombs… nothing terribly important but his pockets absent content did not go unnoticed. Unfortunately, it did not go unnoticed by anyone else either. The con man made a point of being vocal about his misfortune, having informed the townsfolk through a series of outraged shouts that he had been robbed and taken advantage of in his elderly age. To his delight, their sympathy had proven quite profitable in the end.

“One more thing.” He reached into his pocket and revealed a compass he had purchased in Vandare. Without warning, he tossed it at Dipper. “You’re navigating.”

Maybe keeping the kid engaged would help the anxiety Stan had so far pretended to ignore. The last thing he needed was Dipper to pass out from dehydration with all his nervous sweating or something. That was a thing, wasn’t it?

SAME

[pinevestigator]

Dipper reaches out to catch the compass when he throws it at him, not without fumbling it and nearly dropping the thing before he can finally get an actual grip on it. Well, that was convenient. It makes Dipper wish he had thought of getting a compass himself earlier...not like he really had any money on him to buy one.

Using his sleeve to clean off the glass surface of fingerprints, Dipper holds it out so he can see where the arrow is pointing in the gloom, waiting for it to stop bobbing and settle on a direction. That direction happens to be just past where they're standing, in the direction opposite where Dipper was headed.

Whoops.

"Alright, looks like we're heading this way," He said, still holding the compass flat in his palm as he began to walk.

\o/

[kolus]

Stan held his breath for a moment, eyes wide as he watched Dipper fumble with the compass. Only after he had proven a firm hold of the navigator could Stan breathe easy. For a moment it looked like he was going to drop the damn thing. He sighed and rubbed his temples. Now the kid just had to manage not to lose the compass too.

At Dipper's instruction he nodded and took one last look behind his shoulder before following him further into the forest.

"What do you know about this place?" he asked, curious what the boy had learned in his time here. Ryslig was a new mystery altogether for the both of them. It only made sense to compare information, something he was surprised Dipper had yet to ask. The kid had been all over this sort of thing lately - or was it only his damn secrets he was out to expose?

[pinevestigator]

"I don't know much...but I do know that this place isn't all that different from back home." Dipper says in a bit of a hushed tone, not really sure why he's whispering when- presumably- there's nobody around at the moment to hear them talking. ...Except for those creepy children, maybe.

"There are monsters here." He continued, looking back down at the compass. "But they hide themselves among the humans. The townsfolk don't like them at all, but I think they're pretty aware that they're around."

[kolus]

"Don’t believe everything you hear, kid. A few lousy legends don’t amount to much, let alone prove anything.” Stan rolled his eyes, notably annoyed by the subject.

“They believe in boys with excessive body hair and men that sparkle. What girl doesn't these days?" Even Mabel seemed infatuated by the idea judging by the books her friends brought over. Somehow, there was a market for this crap. It made him wonder how much he could have profited if he had come up with 'The Preteen Wolf Boy' sooner. "Don't tell me you thought that junk was real.”

There was a silent 'please' at the beginning of that.

[pinevestigator]

Dipper doesn't answer for a minute, his face burning as Stan- yet again- tries to brush off the supernatural as just another thing he's cooked up due to an overactive imagination. ..At the same time, he doesn't want to give away those he's encountered so far, regardless of whether or not he'll be believed.

"I know what I saw, Grunkle Stan," He finally says, keeping his eyes on the compass as they walk.

[kolus]

"Yeah? Did you see the red wildflowers you just passed too?" he asked pointedly.

Stan may have agreed that there was a familiar supernatural presents on the peninsula but that was no excuse to go looking any further into it. He knew the path it led a man and it was not one he cared to pursue here. No, he would collect what he needed and then he would leave. It was as simple as that. Until then he would just need to keep Dipper's head down.

[pinevestigator]

At that Dipper stops short, his grip tightening on the compass as he looks around quickly.

"Flowers? Where?" He...actually hadn't been looking too hard at his surroundings, keeping his gaze focused on the compass arrow to make sure it didn't waver.

[kolus]

The only response Dipper would receive was a grunt, his uncle lacking the patience to do anything other than point to the floral nestled between overgrown weeds behind them. However, as keen his eye, Stan had not noticed the red that also painted the foliage around them...

[pinevestigator]

"Hang on. Maybe this isn't..." He mumbles to himself, turning the compass over in his hand to make sure it's still giving directions like it should. "I could have sworn this was the right way.."

[kolus]

Stan crossed his arms and turned away to scan the area. He doubted the compass was the problem but allowed Dipper a moment to tinker with the device.

"Well?" he growled, suddenly standing over the boy. "Do you know how to work that thing or not?"

[pinevestigator]

Dipper jerks, pulling the compass close when Grunkle Stan suddenly growls at him, turning on his heel to face him.

"I know how to use a compass, Grunkle Stan! I just...we've been going around in circles!"

[kolus]

Was there not one thing - just one - that could go right today?

He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. Had he been wrong about the Medicine Wheel? Had he just led them in circles all this time? It was possible that something had interfered with the compass but in such cases the needle had always spun, a more obvious sign of its defect. This was new and clearly frustrating to the man. Instead of a way out he had found a whole new level of hate for colour, something Stan had not known even possible.

"I refuse to be outsmarted by a bunch of trees. You hear that?" Stan shook his fist and shouted at the forest. "No one holds Stan Pines against his will!"

Except maybe that prison in Columbia.

[pinevestigator]

Dipper looked back down at the compass, still pointing steadily north, even though he's certain they'd been through this stretch of the woods already. Probably several times over, by now.

"Okay, look. We're obviously not getting out of here without some help. If we can find someone- a local maybe- we'll be lucky. But otherwise, we're going to have to try to figure out something else."

[kolus]

Stan narrowed his eyes, focused on the distant laughter. "Those little jerks wouldn't be so lucky..."

That made the locals definitely out of the equation.

His shoulders sank and a heavy sigh escaped him as a sign of his defeat. "You're usually cookin' something up." he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Lets hear it, kid. You got any ideas?" He attempts to ask nicely but it doesn’t suit him and he still comes off angry. Just because your uncle is finally willing to listen that doesn't mean he has to be happy about it.