graveyardsmash | TEST DRIVE MEME

TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH

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

[Susan blinks, and hurries over to him, concern creasing her brow.]

Hey, hey! I ain't gonna hurt you. It's alright. You'll be fine.

Can you walk? [With those wounds, it doesn't seem like a given.]

[A girl.

Not the police, he thinks, unconsciously releasing the breath he didn't even realize he was holding. Not a danger.

It is a peculiar situation, nonetheless, waking up on a beach to a young girl after blacking out in the middle of a police interrogation. He wonders if this is some sort of hallucinatory landscape, like a place an ancient monk mind find himself after a particularly vigorous meditation session. As the girl approaches him, he notices something... off about her. Make-up, perhaps? A sickness that primarily manifests in her neck and her thin, thin arms?

He stares at her for a long beat. Longer than necessary.]

Yes?

[It doesn't sound certain -- more like he's fishing for the right answer.]

Who are you?

Oh, shit, right. [She grimaces, and the wings laid flat against her back flutter a little in place. They fidget when she's embarrassed, she's starting to learn.] I'm Susan, but I guess that don't mean much to you.

This is Ryslig. Figure you're probably wonderin', right?

[Ryslig. It sounds -- he doesn't know. Scandinavian? He tries to picture maps from his school days. The soft river blues, the grey city centers. It wouldn't be out of the question that he was knocked out and thrown in the ocean a couple of towns over. Maybe Ryslig is one of those small, forgotten villages just a little while up the shore. It would explain why he hasn't heard about it.

Then he notices her wings. Her more ... monstrous qualities.

He crawls backwards, his knees drawing lines in the sand. His heart pounds in his throat, rolling up and down his esophagus like the tide ebbing behind him.]

W-What is --

[The words barely come out. They're made of breaths -- not syllables. He tries again.]

Is this hell?

[She sighs, putting one hand on her hip. She's sympathetic, of course, but some questions just get asked way too much around here.]

It ain't hell. And I already told you I ain't gonna hurt you, so relax, will you?

Come on. We oughtta get you off the beach and dried off, you'll catch your death.

[The confidence with which she says those words -- it ain't hell -- throws him off guard. Same with I ain't gonna hurt you.

He doesn't argue. He doesn't fret. Instead, he slowly makes his way up to his feet, wincing at the way his bruises fight against his muscles. Katurian has always been very good at following instructions. Maybe it has something to do with growing up in a totalitarian dictatorship. (Or maybe, he thinks, it has something to do with having really shitty parents.)]

It isn't make up. Is it? Because --

[He gestured around his throat.]

-- that isn't something you can easily fake. Which either means you're not human, or I've lost my fucking mind.

[Those last words have an unmistakable note of hysteria to them.]

[She sighs again, but makes an effort to gentle both her expression and her voice - and, after a moment's thought, to close her neck-mouth a little more firmly.]

It's the first. Or, anyroad, I guess I ain't human now. You ain't goin' mad. Might feel like it a while, is all.

A while?

[Yet another spark of hysteria. He looks behind him, half expecting to find a door that will lead him back to the interrogation chamber.]

I can't -- I can't afford to be here for a while! I n-need to get back to my brother. I need to get back to him. Is there a bus I can take? I don't think I have much money, but I --

[He starts to rummage through his pockets. It's an absurd thought, thinking that he can just get on a bus and go home when he's face to face with a grotesque mythical creature. It's even more absurd that he thinks anything in his sopping wet pockets would've survived in the ocean.

It doesn't stop him from trying. Katurian has a funny way of going all "automatic" in a crisis.]

I'm sorry.

There ain't no way back.

[She does sound sorry, too. She might not want to go back, but that doesn't mean she can't understand that he does, that he's clearly got unfinished business.]

[His slacks are so wet that it's nearly impossible to slip his fingers into the pockets. He gives up with a harsh sigh, frustrated and angry, like maybe it's his trousers' fault he's in this situation.]

That doesn't make any sense.

[But then it clicks. 'Not hell' doesn't mean 'not the afterlife' or 'not purgatory.' It doesn't mean he's still on Earth.]

Where is "Ryslig?"

I don't know.

Ain't sure anyone does. But it ain't the world I'm from, I know that. Stars're different, animals're different, everythin's different.

You're saying we're in a different world. Like an alternate universe. Like that.

[That doesn't make any sense, he wants to say, but he's under the impression saying that might lead to another disapproving look. As unstable as this reality feels to him, it's clear that the girl feels well enough at home.

He works his jaw.]

Did you wake up here, too? Out of nowhere?

Not... exactly.

I woke up from dyin'.

TEST DRIVE MEME

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject