TEST DRIVE MEME

[ryslighelpers]

TEST DRIVE MEME: MAY

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 of the natives are trying to get on your good side with 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? Feel free to pick any monster type for this prompt, but note that you may not get the same one in game.

Comments

iii.a.

[fantheflame]

[ Sasuke's left ear twitches, a full up-and-down flap like a deer's. The voice is not within human earshot, but Sasuke hears it loud and clear, a bell toll among murmurs despite the din of Dyster. He'd recognize it anywhere. ]

[ It takes him only a moment or two of scanning through the streets to spot him - one of only a few still-humans in a town of ghosts and monsters. Sasuke had known the new arrivals had landed not long ago, but he had been making a point not to check. Not to get his hopes up. Not to think about it, as much as possible. ]

[ Itachi keeps falling into his lap anyway. ]

[ He approaches quickly, shushing the voice screaming human human why is he human why is he wearing those robes, and, as the other monster starts explaining how to send prayer to the Fog God, speaks from a few feet behind and to the right of Itachi's right shoulder. ]

This one's from my home. I'll talk to him from here.

[yourhatred]

[Itachi turns his attention immediately from the townsperson he'd been talking to when Sasuke speaks. Having not yet run into any other recognizable ninja, he hadn't been sure he wasn't the only one. Of anyone else he could have found here, his brother is one he'd expected the least. After all, he had better places to be.]

Sasuke.

[It's not a question, just an acknowledgement. Whatever this place has done to change him, he'd recognize the younger Uchiha anywhere. That doesn't mean his gut doesn't twist up at the sight. The deity in charge has no right to bring Sasuke here and change him however she wants.

What anger he feels is displayed only as a slight frown, easily doubling as concern. He keeps his left eye closed, though the vision in his right one is clear.]

[fantheflame]

[ The other monster says something about being glad the two of them found each other before taking their exit, and Sasuke has to remind himself to tick his gaze to them and incline his head slightly in a nod. Since coming here, he's learned slowly to pick up social norms here and there - more to keep under the radar than anything - but Itachi's presence nearly makes him forget everything. Narrow everything down to just the two of them, even here in the street. It's always been that way. ]

Niisan.

[ His own acknowledgement is simple, but says much. Not Itachi. Niisan. ]

[ The frown tells him more than the robes, the closed eye, even the solidity of flesh. Itachi should be smiling to see him. Not even a terribly demonstrative smile - but this? He knows the stories. He's not sure if this makes it easier or more difficult to believe that Ryslig is just another name for yomi. ]

You haven't been here before.

[ That, too, isn't a question. ]

[yourhatred]

...No. I have not.

[The way Sasuke phrases that makes it sound as though he should have, which is boggling to him. If events had occurred that he lost all memory of that would be one thing, but that's not what his brother had said. He didn't say 'you don't remember'. He said 'you haven't been here', and that's a very important distinction.

What is he missing?

He can't even say it's good to see Sasuke, because it isn't. Not like this. He should be glad to be able to spend more time with him and part of him is, but he would have preferred different circumstances than this twisted menagerie.

The ninja focuses on his brother's face. He doesn't want to stare at the wings and scales and other various additions. Not only is that likely to make the young man uncomfortable, but learning about those physical changes is actually low on his list of priorities.]

I didn't expect to see you.

[fantheflame]

[ Nothing breaks in Sasuke's chest, but something forms surface cracks, superficial but difficult to ignore. This isn't the Itachi who pulled him out of his own grave, who packed numbing snow into the gashes on his head when horns split out of his skull, who shared a home with him for the first time in years. He has none of the memories, none of the experience of slowly opening to each other, forming a bond that could be called brotherly again. And without that, he can't know what all of it means to Sasuke. ]

[ But it's cracks, and not breaks, because this is still Itachi. There's no part of him that believes, or even considers, that this Itachi, pulled from a different point in his timeline than the one who was here for longer than Sasuke really knows, could possibly be intrinsically different. ]

[ Itachi can't know what has happened here before, but that doesn't - can't - mean he wouldn't have done the same, or the same enough to count. ]

[ It must show on his face - though he doesn't know whether Itachi can see that, without his Sharingan - but Sasuke can't bring himself to care. ]

[ In answer, he pops open the top few snaps of his shirt, exposing enough chest to show a vertical scar, its length the width of his own chokuto, over his heart and lung. ]

Madara.

[yourhatred]

[As Sasuke opens his shirt, Itachi's gaze snaps immediately to the displayed scar and all the blood in his veins turns to ice. The single spoken name only compounds the feeling.

If there was anyone who could escape the ending of the Edo Tensei, it would be Madara. If there was anyone who could then defeat his brother handily in combat it would be Madara. That Sasuke had ended up facing him head on isn't surprising, whether their ancestor had gone after him directly or the younger ninja had attacked him first. The details don't matter. What his brother is insinuating is his own death, and while he'd always foreseen that as a possibility he's having a hard time coming to terms with it.

Because if he'd died then Itachi had failed and Naruto had failed and it's as though the universe had just spit in his face and laughed at how he'd bothered to put his trust in anyone or anything.

This is all wrong.]

Madara...

[His one good eye remains focused on that marking a few moments longer before he switches his attention sharply to the other ninja's face.]

How long has it been? Time seems to be off for me.

[His tone is carefully controlled, anger contained through a good amount of force.]

[fantheflame]

[ This Itachi doesn't react as openly as the last - but the last had been here, had been acclimating to a life after death, long before Sasuke arrived. And when this meeting happened last, they'd been alone. ]

[ What does happen is Itachi's core temperature rises. Not much, but enough for Sasuke, gargoyle, to feel, to smell. That is better, immediately, than the dead-cold impassivity of the previous Itachi's incorporeality. And it tells Sasuke as much as if Itachi had contorted his face or snapped his words or both. ]

By the calendar I first arrived here two years ago. There are multiple gaps in my memory, one six months long. [ A pause. ] When I first remember being here, there was an Itachi, already transformed. [ He doesn't say another, because he can't think that they aren't the same one from different points in their time. ] I wouldn't trust the flow of time here to be fixed to the one from home.

[yourhatred]

[What comes out of Sasuke's mouth are some of the most confusing lines of dialogue he's ever heard. The words all make sense but the concepts defy logic. He speaks of 'an Itachi', as if another version of himself existing prior to this is commonplace. Is he so certain that wasn't him? If Sasuke has gaps in his memory then it's plausible Itachi has gaps in his. He could have been transformed and then changed back for whatever reason, if this place really is run by fickle gods.

He knows all about altering the flow of time, at least. The rest he'll have to figure out as he goes.

The ninja takes a deep breath, eyes shutting in what might as well be a slow blink but in reality is a way of settling his nerves. All this is a little too much for him to not be visually aggravated.]

Is there somewhere we can go and talk?

[There's a lot he needs to be caught up on, apparently.]

[fantheflame]

[ On the one hand, Sasuke had gotten well used to Itachi being expressive, here. He had put a conscious effort into it, with Sasuke in particular, that was sometimes strained but mostly honest. On the other, this is Itachi from a different point in time, and seeing this much from him is just short of jarring. But it's also an odd comfort to see, both the upset at this situation - on his behalf - and the expression, any expression. ]

...I can take you straight to where I live, from here. It'll be difficult for you to leave the grounds on your own, but I can explain when we arrive.

[ He doubts this will be a comfortable trip, but it's where Sasuke entered Dyster from today, so it's where he - and Itachi - will return. He pulls a small key from an inner pocket of his shirt and approaches a side door at a less busy-looking building. As he inserts the key into the lock, the keyhole seems to yawn and stretch to accommodate it. When he turns it, the sound of the lock opening is a decisive, heavy thunk. ]

[ When he opens the door, Itachi will see past him into a room that, except for the furniture itself, will look incredibly familiar, from the (now much faded) green of the walls and floor to the placement of the window. Sasuke doesn't apologize, or hesitate, before stepping through. Itachi can choose to follow him at whatever pace. ]

[yourhatred]

[The key is a curiosity, but if his brother has a way to enter and leave the fog god's domain does that make him a follower of hers? Sasuke is resourceful, but he's not known for making the best choices when it comes to allegiance, no matter his reasons. Itachi doesn't know enough about this world yet to make any judgments, and even if he did he's long since lost the right to tell his brother what to do. Sasuke can make his own decisions.

When the door opens, all that becomes less important anyway. He has to take a moment to question reality, and whether he was actually brought back or if this is actually purgatory. He'd almost started to feel grounded here, but these past few minutes have had a very surreal, dreamlike quality. Is he stuck in his own mind after all?

He hesitates a long moment on the threshold before following Sasuke in. His footsteps are slow at first, but eventually resume a normal pace as he catches up with him.]

This is where you live?

[His tone is somewhat hushed, as though speaking too loudly might rouse the spirits of the dead, but otherwise betrays none of whatever else he might be feeling at seeing their former home.]

[fantheflame]

[ Sasuke would have to be a completely numb kind of blind not to notice everything, to feel the seconds of hesitation drawing out like hours, to pace Itachi's footfalls as through quicksand against his usual easy gait. Sasuke doesn't turn back, doesn't stare at Itachi as he finally enters, only closes the door quietly once he's completely crossed the threshold. He didn't expect a terribly different reaction than this. ]

It's different from the one we used to live in. Smaller. I'm pretty sure it's a gag gift from the powers here.

[ He'll elaborate on that - on Tikbalang, and now Mana - later. ]

It's secluded enough in the woods. No one comes here. It's better than some apartment in a building full of noise. [ Full of other people. It's also better than sleeping in broken-into basements and the abandoned rooms of the hunted and eaten, but that's a tiring conversation Sasuke doesn't need to have. ]

[yourhatred]

[A joke, is it? Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised. Still, Sasuke claims to live here. He's still attached to it, even with all it stands for and all that happened here.

Itachi has to restrain himself from reaching out to run a hand along one of the walls. He hasn't been inside this house, copy or not, since that day when he was thirteen. He still remembers every detail: every crack in the floor and scratch on the wall. His whole chest aches at the sight of it. He's not sure he could live here the same way his brother does.]

As long as it's what you want.

[For the long term, for just these next few moments, it doesn't matter. They'll talk wherever Sasuke leads him to. If the young man sits down in the same spot he'd run their parents through he'd sit down along with him.]

[fantheflame]

[ That crackled thing in the middle of Sasuke's chest softens immediately. That sentiment, Itachi wanting for Sasuke what Sasuke wants, that is familiar now. That is how it was for all the months past he was here at the same time as his brother. This is still his Itachi, his niisan. There are just new (aching) gaps to fill. ]

[ He doesn't reply, though the shift in his expression - the pain and warmth and longing of familial nostalgia - is not subtle. When he steps back past Itachi and opens the door, this time it leads to the hall. ]

Let's talk in the kitchen. [ His voice, too, is softer than his usual clip. He leads the way, passing the rest of the bedroom doors, walking by the largest one as though it firmly does not exist. When they reach the kitchen, furnished with all the same cabinets and fixtures and a table that is not original but very close in shape, he pauses. Hesitates, searching for the right tone, the right words, the right everything. His next words, still softer, are just a little halting. ]

Do you want anything? I think there's still sugar and honey for tea, and I've been to the bakery recently.

[ He doesn't turn to make eye contact. Doesn't mention that the sweeteners are from the previous presence of his brother. This is strange all over again. ]

[yourhatred]

[Itachi is a silent shadow as they walk, eye focused squarely on his brother's back. He'll have to face the existence of these rooms eventually, but for now he's content to focus on the discussion at hand.

This may be the first time he's gone to Sasuke for answers and not the other way around. He's fully aware that there might be biases in his explanations, but there's still no one else he'd rather hear them from. He hadn't ever been very open with his brother, at least not as much as he should have been, but Sasuke knows him well enough to tell him the things he'd find most important.

When they stop in the kitchen, Itachi pulls a chair out for himself at the table and sits down. His brother's words and tone give him pause, and he finds himself unable to straight out tell him no. Accepting the offer would only be polite, and in Sasuke's case he looks like he'd appreciate it.]

...Tea would be nice. Thank you.

[His brother isn't a fan of sweets. He can infer what their presence here means and that doesn't make this any easier for him either.]

[fantheflame]

[ Sasuke doesn't exhale a long breath, but his shoulders - and the tilt of his folded wings - relax almost as if he had, and he turns to fill and set the kettle. It gives him something to do with his hands while he tries to get his mouth and his brain and his emotions to all connect. ]

You're not using your left eye.

[ It's a somewhat less insipid as an observation than the question what do you remember would be. He hopes. ]

[ With the kettle lit, there's nothing to do but seat himself. There's a fractional pause in his steps as he considers the square table. When he sits, he chooses the seat to Itachi's right, rather than the one across. ]

How much have you learned, and what do you want to know?

[yourhatred]

It no longer functions. [The price of Izanami remains even here.] It shut shortly after I arrived and I haven't been able to open it since.

[Though he'd used the technique expecting to die again soon anyway, he's not bothered by having to deal with the consequences here. It's strange, seeing as the body he'd been using then wasn't technically his and it wasn't really living, but fair is fair.

When Sasuke asks his question he folds his hands together in his lap and takes a second or two to corral his thoughts.]

I know of the deities here. Two that are particularly active and others that aren't. I know something of what happens to those who are brought here. [Sasuke is proof of that, whether or not he believed it before.] What other details I've heard are questionable at best.

[fantheflame]

[ Itachi doesn't seem much put out by the loss of his eye. That, with the lack of surprise or confusion, answers Sasuke's question well enough. ]

After about a month you'll start to change. There's really no way to guess into what, or how fast. The Fog God is fickle, or this place is, or both. [ Even if he numbers among Her followers now, he's not completely blind to Her insanities and faults. ]

When you were here last, [ he says, measuring words slowly, trying and perhaps not succeeding in indicating his certainty that Itachi is Itachi without being accusatory about the differences, ] you were already a shade before I arrived. Two winters ago, a demon or demigod in the lone mountain lured half the continent into a trap there and crushed its captors until their bodies and monster presentations warped and changed. You became a manticore, briefly. I was a naga. Others have been changed by other means.

[yourhatred]

[A month. That corresponds with what little he'd heard already. It's a fair amount of time to prepare and he's dealt with worse time constraints before, though he can't say the final product won't be terrible.

A shade sounds... fitting, in the worst way. Is that what he's to become? Will time work its way backwards somehow? It isn't out of the question given how complicated things have already been. Maybe he doesn't understand anything now but he will soon, and then it will be his turn to explain them to his brother.

Or maybe not. He could be getting ahead of himself.]

Has the being in the mountain made any other appearances since?

[fantheflame]

[ Sasuke laughs, not quite a hollow sound, but it's not one of mirth either. ]

No. The Fog surrounded the mountain and crushed it down with enough force to rain rock on most of the peninsula. The changes in presentation reverted soon after.

[ There's a small note of something not quite awe, but an undercurrent of impressed not typical of Sasuke, to speak of the Fog's destruction. ]

[ After a moment, though, he turns his left hand palm-up, showing a black crescent the same exact shape as the red top of the Uchiha crest. ]

This appeared during the day after the destruction, however.

[yourhatred]

[Itachi isn't entirely sure how this explanation relates to their current situation, nor does he care for the way his brother's tone shifts when speaking of the Fog deity. All the same, he'll continue to listen to anything the other ninja wants to tell him.

The mark he's shown looks like a crescent moon, and he wouldn't have equated it to the Uchiha crest at all had been on anyone else but Sasuke. With him, or even with anyone in their family, things are always different. He holds himself back from reaching out to touch it. It's as good as a branding as far as he's concerned.]

I'd be interested in knowing the purpose of it all.

[A light nudge, not quite a push. He leaves his statement open to interpretation so he isn't directing the conversation too strongly. He does have patience.]

[fantheflame]

So would I.

[ Sorry, big brother - even Sasuke hasn't managed to get that information in much detail. ]

The Fog God seems content to pull us to this peninsula for her own designs. She is responsible for the changes, and for the Fog that blankets the island a few times a month. In the Fog, all transformed are able to move freely regardless of the time of day. She doesn't seem to want more than for the transformed to act like what she's turned them into and cause their share of chaos.

Elias Liewen was a technological torture experiment created by his father to siphon power away from the Fog God. [ Sasuke's tone has shifted again, maybe with the barest edge of rankle for the fact that the older Liewen stole power from the Fog - but mostly a deep disgust for his fucking audacity to do such horrific things to his own son. The sound carries an echo between growl and cracking brimstone from the back of his throat. ] He was created as a battery for the "network," something of a digital library of text communications created and logged by the transformed. It still functions even though some of the early transformed to arrive here liberated him from the lab he was locked in. Most who access the network do so with a small recording device.

[ There is no pause, but Sasuke's loosely-curled hands tighten into fists on the surface of the table. ] In January he also forcibly inserted wires from these devices into the skin of any who used the them, attaching their minds to the network and knocking them unconscious to do so. Their dreams and nightmares were linked together for any of them to wander in and out of. [ Sasuke's swallow is short and quiet enough it almost - almost - doesn't constitute a pause between sentences. ] The moment the Fog God broke that hold, I smashed that device into splinters and burned it until melted and smoked and there was no possibility of function. [ It's infinitesimal, but those tight fists are just slightly shaking. ]

[yourhatred]

[It may seem like all she wants is to cause chaos, but that's rarely all it is even with the most unstable of individuals. If she'd started bringing in others to turn into monsters then she needed the forces - most likely to contend with this other being of power, this Elias Liewen that Sasuke spoke of with such hatred.

He understands now, at least partially, why his brother must have sided with one deity against the other instead of remaining neutral. He felt violated by Liewen and sought out the best means of acting against him.

Now he's telling the story to Itachi the way he would have when they were children. It's strange to think that, after all these years, Sasuke has so easily fallen back into the position of younger brother, expressing his woes to him just because he's there to listen. If he's asking for validation then Itachi can't give it to him, but at least he's there to hear him.

After all, it seems he's cut himself off from communicating with everyone else.]

... What month is it now?

[Someone else might offer their brother some more sympathy in this situation, and he's sure he will eventually, but right now this is all so sudden he's not yet ready for it.]

[fantheflame]

[ Itachi has never been the picture of demonstrative. Whatever closeness they'd started to learn around each other here... those memories, at least now, are gone on the elder's side. Sasuke is neither surprised nor put off by the response, given that. Something sour turns in his stomach... but it's not something that he can fix in minutes with anger and press. ]

June.

[ There's no need to say more than that. It's been a solid few months since the pretender to godhood pulled his fucking stunt, and bile taste of it in Sasuke's throat is no less acrid. There are other developments since, though, that are important to note. Especially here. ]

The war between them recently caused new schisms on the peninsula. There are pockets where each of them holds more power than the other in disproportion. Liewen's corruption lingers in the central park of Bavan, where the plants have withered and the animals fled. From reports, the transformed's powers are nullified there, though his followers are immune.

The Fog God's influence covers all of Lager Woods. Her followers are likewise immune, but I've been told the effects include unrecognizable faces, shadows moving regardless of light source, and whispers from nowhere. [ A beat. ] This house is about a half mile inside the edge of those woods. It's apparently unpleasant for a non-follower to find their way in and out without assistance. [ So Percy told him, much to Sasuke's distaste. ]

[yourhatred]

[So he's been dealing with this frustration for months now, and has lost the means for quick communication for a while. Messenger birds probably aren't a thing here, unless he's trained one up himself.

Itachi listens carefully to all the details his brother gives him. He's unfamiliar with many of those areas, but he won't be for long. He has a location for the house now, as well as important information on what's surrounding it. He has to wonder if their influence is only temporary or if these changes will last as long as the two feud, if not longer.]

And you are a follower of hers.

[It's obvious that he is, so this isn't a question. Nor does he intend to sound judgmental. He doesn't even need to know why Sasuke made that decision, as the answer is laid out in front of him, but he might as well have it confirmed.]

[fantheflame]

Neutrality offers little benefit here. Liewen and the Fog God each offer their own boons, beyond those of safety in these pockets of claimed territory. [ Sasuke doesn't actually sound defensive, much as he still has that cutting edge of anger in the back of his throat. ] We had discussed mutual infiltration, you and I, when you were last here. [ It's easier now for Sasuke to say you, since Itachi has not rejected the idea. ] The opportunity to do so naturally did not present itself. [ Until. ] I trust neither of them, but I now trust Liewen less.