graveyardsmash | TEST DRIVE MEME

TEST DRIVE MEME: JANUARY

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Rhys's shoulders drop a bit. He's making the monster uncomfortable. He should have better manners. And somewhere in the back of his head that would actually be funny if he wasn't still scared shitless.]

My world has a lot of magic, but it's pretty scary. I was a mage. Am a mage? I don't know. My powers were gone when I woke up here. But everything that was spooky or not human just hid, blended in and minded its own business. It wasn't all out in the open like this. [He gestures to his little collection of offerings.]

[He gives a small cough, and a helpless look.] I'm Rhys, by the way.

Yeah. You don't keep your own powers if you had those.

[He's known plenty of people who've run into that problem. He smiles tentatively.]

Oliver.

Honestly, it's probably better. I was an empath back home, I don't think I'd like having to deal with that, here.

[You'll pardon him if he doesn't shake hands, but he does smile, anyway.]

So it's just business as usual here, except with monsters?

I wouldn't exactly call it business as usual.

[Then again... it sounded like eating humans was pretty commonplace in his own world.]

I guess this place is a little easier to take in for you, huh?

[Not commonplace, exactly. Rhys was kind of in the weird end of the swimming pool in his own world, so there was definitely a divide between his 9-5 job and the things that go Bump in the night.]

Aside from having no idea how I wound up going for a swim, it could have been a lot worse, yeah. I mean, it's still a lot, but it's not like freaking out would do any good, so I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. And then freak out on an educated basis.

[A small flicker of a smile, there.]

So everyone who changes, do they still get jobs, everything like that? Or do they just hang out and get worshipped? I get that there's a religion thing going on here, but...that's still a little vague to me.

That's surprisingly level headed.

[And still leaves a lot to freak out about, even with all the known facts in play.

"Hang out and get worshipped" is an unusually optimistic conclusion though. He laughs a little, shaking his head.]

Oh, we don't get worshipped.

I guess it comes from usually being the sane one when everyone else is panicking. Freaking out doesn't accomplish much, most of the time.

[Rhys certainly isn't going to leave out the possibility of a truly epic freak-out later, though. Especially when he still has a lot to figure out and probably more surprises yet to come.

He tilts his head, considering his words with a grim smile as he indicates his bag.]

Okay, maybe not worshipped. Maybe 'fearfully bribed'?

That doesn't matter. Freaking out isn't something most people do if they can help it.

[That much he has a point on, though the response humans have towards them depends a lot on the atmosphere. It's been far more aggressive before now.]

I guess you could say that. You should be careful though. A lot of them are scared of us, and some people think fighting back is the answer.

[Of course, at least some of it is also just humor and/or bravado, not that Rhys will admit it. But he'll have plenty of time to figure it all out, unfortunately.]

That makes sense. Humans can be touchy, and torches and pitchforks are a great way to bring a town together. [He rubs the back of his hair.]

Is there anything good about this, or is it pretty much just "hey, get through it"?

I know you're kidding, but there have been actual mobs before.

[As for whether there are good things... Oliver hesitates, seeming to think about it before he answers the question.]

There are some nice people here?

There are monsters in my world, too, but they were all hidden. Mobs didn't happen, but there are hunters, and the Witch Trials weren't all that long ago, really.

[He sighs, and gives a crooked smile. His world was weird, but this one still seems so terribly different. He's learning to cope and survive all over again, but without the luxury of hiding.]

That's good to know. Makes it survivable, right? And, you seem decent, for what it's worth. I appreciate you talking to me.

How long is not all that long ago?

[Because they were pretty recent so far as he's concerned, but if they're happening somewhere with actual witches... maybe it was even more recent.]

It's okay. We were all new once, right?

Well, around three hundred years, but when it's your bloodline, you tend to remember history a lot more carefully.

And sadly, society hasn't progressed as much as we'd like. There's still a lot of persecution for anyone who's different, the same kind of mentality and ostracism. [He shrugs, a little sadly. He probably has gotten more abuse for sleeping with other men than for being a witch, if he ever tallied up the violence and hate in his life.]

I still appreciate it, though.

I get that. People can be pretty mean.

[Maybe he's not a witch, but Oliver's certainly experienced other forms of prejudice in his life.]

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