Test Drive Meme: July

[ryslighelpers]

TEST DRIVE MEME: JULY

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 is making all the cuts and scrapes on your skin 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 on the more informative end of the scale. 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 readers saying they're lies, or pointing out good "jokes."

Then there are 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

[kscience]

Magic- we don't have that where I come from. It'd probably be another of those "cool in concept, bad in execution" things, I guess. [Newt snorts.] It'd've pretty damn hard to hide the whole "giant monsters" shit back home. Millions of people died, a couple major cities were wiped out in the first attack. Not even the government could be like, "Uhhhh. It's weather balloons. No one look behind the curtain!" 'Course, they did make the stupid decision of saying it was just a fluke and it would never happen again. And then it did. Again and again. ... Wait, so... if you know magic's real, but most people don't know, then you're probably one of the ones that, like, keeps other people from knowing it exists?

[bookbrawler]

Oh, there's plenty of cool things it can do. And even more horrible things it can do.

You'd be surprised at the lengths some motivated government agencies will go. [DOSA, for one. At least they were mostly on the same side now, protecting people from magic that could harm them.]

Did you find a way to stop your monsters?

[Y'know, in case it happens in his world. A lot of weird things happen in his world and he wants to be prepared.]

...somethin' like that. [Asking the right questions already. He doesn't mind answering this line of questioning, and that gets a slight grin. At least, he hopes it looks like a slight grin. He's still not got the whole actual-wolf-face thing down yet.]

It's a lot harder than one would think. Most of the time it ends with people promisin' they won't tell anybody about it.

[kscience]

Oh, believe me, not surprised at all. Government and higher-ups are corrupt wherever you go. I mean, the giant robots worked out pretty well the first time with kicking their asses and closing the breach. And then I kinda fucked it all up again while possessed and brought 'em back, but again. Giant robots. Giant monsters' only weakness, I guess. [Newt catches the grin, but frowns in response.] Isn't that kinda dangerous, though? Like. If our government had somehow hid the evidence and witnesses, convinced everyone that the first Kaiju attack hadn't happened, and then kept trying to hide it with each following attack, no one would've known what the fuck was going on the next time they attacked. Or the time after that, and the time after that, you get the idea. Lots more people would've died if they hadn't known to evacuate, or if they just plain panicked without understanding what was happening. And, I mean, they still did, of course they did, but it would've been worse, ya know? Because they wouldn't be like "oh shit, it's the Kaiju again, better get to the bunkers under the city and wait for the giant robots to save us", it'd be, "AAAAAGHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING??? WHAT ARE THESE THINGS"... Am I making sense here? Like, I get that it feels like the lesser of two evils, but I don't know- I think I prefer people to know, you know?

[bookbrawler]

[Jacob's demeanor changes the moment he hears 'giant robots'. His tail starts wagging excitedly and he looks up with wide eyes.]

You have giant robots fighting giant monsters?!

[He's sure this guy's world is as awful as he'd been describing but--

Giant.

Robots.

Fighting.

Giant.

Monsters.

Please accept all his excitement, Newt.]

You have giant robots fighting giant monsters. That's incredible!

[Except all the death and destruction and stuff. He thinks about Newt's point for a long moment.]

I get it--I mean, it's not giant monster level of destruction, but messing with people's lives? One time we had to deal with a...magical book that turned the entire town into fairy tale characters, rewriting reality. Including me and my friends. Plus, the book was powered by a little girl's life force. She almost died.

So yeah, I get your point, but...magic is different than natural-disaster-level events. Magic corrupts, if people knew about it...you'd get stuff like that fairy tale town, except more often.

[kscience]

Fuck yeah, we do! [Immediately, Newt's demeanor changes to pure, unadulterated excitement. You have no idea how awesome it is. My- my, uh, lab partner- ex lab partner?- my ex- uh, my friend Hermann, he wrote the code for the first Jaegers- those are the giant robots. And theyre piloted by two or more people who share the neural load- ok, wait, I'm not explaining this well. Lemme go back. It's like- the Jaegers can't be run by one person alone, there has to be two people connected to the Jaeger, because one person can't handle the sheer amount of stress and strain, it's overwhelming. But two or three people, can handle the neural loads, so they get in the robot, and they connect their minds together, in something we call the Drift. And it works better if the people involved are close or work well together, which is called "drift compatibility"- siblings, partners, parent and child, you get the idea. If the people involved are drift compatible, there's less of a chance of problems cropping up. So basically, we've got giant robots that have a couple pilots and the giant robots punch the shit out of the giant monsters, and its really kickass, except for the, death and whole cities getting wiped out [His excitement fades a little.] ... How'd that happen? With the, uh, little girl. And is she alright now? And yeah, I know, it's not really something you can test out and see how the world'll react and then take it back if they misuse it? But still. I dunno.

[bookbrawler]

Is it bad I wanna see it? I mean, without the...death and destruction. [Sorry, he doesn't mean to be callous about it.] But giant robots fighting giant monsters? Giant robots that are piloted by people whose minds are connected to it!?

[This is a m a z i n g.]

The little girl made it, we broke the spell just in time. No lasting problems, and the book is in...a safe place. Pretty much what happens whenever we find a powerful magical artifact in the wild.

Exactly. And in my experience, magic might be what drives a regular person into becoming the worst version of themselves. Sometimes literally in that case.

[kscience]

Dude, not bad at all- believe me, I know how kickass it is. The Kaiju are fucking awesome if it weren't for them trying to kill everyone and, you know, possession. I didn't get my tats for nothing. [He rolls up one sleeve as he says this, revealing some of the inked skin. It's a little hard to make out what they once were- the tattoos themselves have begun to change. Where there once was green and red ink, there are now iridescent, colorful scales. Regardless, it's easy to make out that there at least used to be a monster on his arm, with bared teeth and massive talons.] I'm glad that, uh- she's alright. And... yeah, I guess that's. Fair enough. Like, we don't exactly go around giving, you know, everyone in the world access to nuclear weapons just because it'd be fair. But we also don't hide the fact those weapons exist from the entire world, and, uh. And the people that've got 'em aren't always the people who should have 'em? Is this- is this analogy even working anymore, I dunno.