Test drive meme: November

[ryslighelpers]

TEST DRIVE MEME: NOVEMBER

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

[worldsplitter]

[ aaaaand there it is. to specifically say "chosen of sylvarant" and not just "the chosen" she's either someone in the know from tethe'alla, or someone from after he died and lloyd's team did their thing, which is apparently possible, according to some of the more complicated pamphlets.

(sorry, alice, even if he'd still been alive for that, he wouldn't know who you are anyway. mortals tend to be beneath him if they have their own motivations.) ]

Oh- wow, really? I'm from Tethe'alla, so I've never met either Chosen, but I don't think ours had wings... [ even if he was being earnest he'd probably barely want to admit to meeting zelos, admittedly. ]

I'm a little jealous, really... People like me don't get to meet people like them very often. You must be someone pretty important back home, then.

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ She can't help but laugh when he mentions Zelos. ] Zelos? He's not much better, really. I've heard that he's a womanizer, but I haven't seen that at all.

[ It's not like she kidnapped and threatened to injure his sister, right? That possibly couldn't have anything to do with it.

As if on cue, Alice flips her hair back, as if that somehow is supposed to illustrate how important she is. ] Of course I am! I'm impressed you noticed! I'm Alice, from the Vanguard. Even if you're from Tethe'alla, you should know how big of a deal I am. ♡

[worldsplitter]

[ he completely stonefaces the mention of zelos, which may be a little weird for a tethe'allan, but whatever. he hates that useless idiot and his dumb sister. why is it so hard to get loyal pawns?

he also relishes the opportunity to get to say what he says next, though, not a trace of malice in his innocent voice-- ]

... Sorry, I've never heard of you or the Vanguard.

Kaphlar Kinra | Original Character

[ignisvulpes]

Two

[Kaph wishes he could tell which pamphlets are legit and which are bullshit at a glance, but in a place like this, who the hell knows? He's not even sure he can trust the notes other monsters have left - if only because he is the kind of guy who would write something false on the margins, as a hilarious joke.

Damn, though. It gets boring reading through all of these. By the time he speaks up - or mumbles offhand to himself, really - he's not so much reading as he's looking at words and noting to himself that they sure are in a sentence.]

... Pretty icky. But if it's what, a one-in-three chance if turning into something that eats meat, the odds shooould be in my favor...


Three

[He doesn't really have a habit of listening to voices in his head, largely because, y'know, he doesn't hear them. That's not his scene. But apparently the world around him didn't get the memo and now he's looking at some weirdos... dancing around a fire?

What is this place? Why does it look like shit? Wasn't it enough to wake up in another world? He just had to get and get himself in, what, some sort of world within a world???

The moment he finds a monster, he's just going to go up to them and say:]

Hey, yeah, you know the way out? I'm not into cults or whatever this is.

[conceivesfrenzy]

Oh. Really?

[ She visibly deflates. Well. That's not even remotely close to what she was expecting. ]

You're from Tethe'alla, and you're telling me you haven't heard of the Sylvaranti Liberation Front? What, do you live under a rock or something?

[ She hasn't really had to deal with any sort of time bullshit here, so the concept of him being from before the worlds were reunited is not something that's coming to mind.

[worldsplitter]

[ didn't live under one, but did get crushed under some at one point. ask the doll, she'll tell you.

"sylvaranti liberation front" sounds dangerously close to some of the things he encountered in his travels 4000 years ago, though. he told them, didn't he? uniting the worlds, destroying exspheres, breaking the cycle-- none of it would work. people are people, and they will kill and oppress each other no matter what.

this weird egoist spider in front of him is proof of that. ]

Um- I don't get out much, really. Ozette was always pretty slow to get news, too, so maybe we just didn't hear about it before it was burned down...?

2 hewwo

[junosteel]

[Sup, Taako. There's a giant raccoon with an eyepatch and a scar across the bridge of his nose, staring down with a vaguely startled expression. That expression quickly turns into a scowl.]

Um, easy? Just find someplace that's run by a human. Most monster places don't even serve human flesh, anyways, that'd be weird. It's like, if you were living in a city run by chickens or something, and your restaurant only served grilled chicken.

[The guy before him looks almost human, if not for the giant ears blatantly sticking out from his hair. His eyebrows furrow as he studies the elf--he feels like he should recognize him, but he doesn't know why.]

I'm sorry, you look a lot like someone I know. Have we met, or....?

two!

[blackplantasia]

Ed admittedly hasn't paid any mind to the pamphlets anyone's been handing out, perhaps taking one for the sake of being polite (and thusly avoiding any cross or suspicious looks) but he either pockets or pitches them right after. At least the titles give him a good idea of what's going on here.

Or, at least, a good idea of his inevitably fate.

Despite something fairly depressing (depending on whom you ask), though, he merely tilts his head and attempts to lean over to get a look at what Kaph is reading. "You a vegetarian?"

Undyne | Undertale

[fuhuhuhuhu]

one.

[The water is almost freezing cold, causing Undyne to wake up almost instantly. The monster coughs up a lungful of sand, blinking her eye open as she gazes upward. Her eye widens once she realizes that she doesn't know where the hell she is, much less how she ended up on this stupid beach.]

Alphys? Papyrus? [A pause.] ...Frisk?

[But no one came. Undyne sneers, glancing up and down the shoreline. This place almost resembles the underground in the fact there doesn't seem to be any light seeping through the clouds, but...it can't be, can it? The underground was opened up long ago, and it's not like she could've been warped back in time.]

...If this turns out to be a prank or something, I am TOTALLY going to kick your ass!!!

[She tries to summon a spear in her hand, but nothing happens. She pauses for a brief moment, taken aback. Hell, she could barely remember a time when she couldn't use summoning magic. Grimacing, she tries again and again, getting more and more frustrated until--]

NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

[Blinded by fury, she picks up a nearby rotting log and throws it with all her might, not looking where she's aiming. Watch out!]

two.

[After being shoved into an unfamiliar place without being able to use any of her regular magic, Undyne is understandably very stressed and confused. When stress and confusion combine, they turn into anger. Thus, when Undyne is shoved a bunch of pamphlets about the fact that she's going to turn into a monster, she takes one look at them and....laughs?]

Thanks! But, uh, there's just one thing....

[She leans in, a wicked sneer on her face as she shoves them back into the person's hands.]

I'M ALREADY A MONSTER, YOU DORK. STOP TRYING TO GIVE THESE THINGS TO ME!!!

network.

< strongfish91 >
so like is there a monster gym or something around here or what???? i need to keep in tip top shape and i can't do that without working out.

OR LIKE a fight club or something would be cool too, but jsyk i would TOTALLY kick ALL of your asses!!!!

wildcard.

[Feel free to HMU @ wolfnoir

Emma Price | OC

[ratecommentsub]

1 - Beach arrival

[Emma is deeply confused as she wakes up. A beach isn’t exactly a place she normally hands out at, and especially not in a situation where she’s fully clothed with a mouth full of sand.

She awkwardly gets to her feet and dusts the sand off her, looking around in confusion.]

Hey Ash? You here?

[Aaand she’s alone. Or at least “alone” in the sense that there’s no one she recognizes. Frowning slightly, she wanders around the beach and waves at the first person she comes across.]

Yo, is this the afterlife? Because if it is, I am deeply disappointed.

2 - Slime

[So.

Waking up with the feeling that your bones are melting.

That’s… really not fun at all.

Emma attempts to get out of her bed but finds her legs buckling as she collapses to the floor. She’s relieved for a moment that it didn’t hurt before it hit her how weird she is. Opening her eyes, she examines her hands to see what’s wrong with her.

Aaand her hands are now a blue goopy mess. Fun. She can actually see her bones like this, but what’s worrying her more is that she can watch her bones being dissolved inside her skin.

Eh oh well, she’s not going to sit inside all day and mope about it. After trying to figure out how to move like this, she oozes out of her apartment, bumping into everyone she comes across as she tries to make her way through the town.]

Don’t mind me, I’m just going to get some ibuprofen.

[She’s fine.]

3 - Network

< pleasesubscribe >

Wow they really give you fossils for communications here, huh? It sucks that I can’t even record a decent vlog, let alone shows like this. This place has the power to mutate people but it can’t even provide an easy way to dick around with a camera? Lame

But at least I can do this: :-)

Living the true 1997 experience

3 <strongfish91>

[fuhuhuhuhu]

RIGHT???? i can't even play my favorite video games or watch any anime!!! no wonder everything here is so LAME and EVERYONE is so SAD all the time about being monsters

how the HELL are people supposed to learn about human history without having access to anime????

< pleasesubscribe >

[ratecommentsub]

...

Are you one of those people who watch anime about magical girls in WWII and think that's an accurate historical drama?

1

[scholiast]

(Lucretia comes to on the beach in more or less the same way: salt in the mouth, sand in the cuts, the whole shebang. It feels like she's been plunged into the middle of a war. Feels, oddly, like the start of a new cycle... if only those days weren't so far behind her, huh.

She makes it back onto her feet but before she can start to really take in her surroundings at all, a familiar voice rings out across the beach, one that she recognises immediately. Taako is stretched out on his stomach on the beach; as he rises, his hands up by his shoulders with palms out, Lucretia notices the shadowy figure facing off against him with a gun with a lurch of panic: oh, hell.

The click of the safety coming off the weapon startles her into action. She takes a step toward them, up behind his attacker. The person's eyes flicker over to her immediately but they don't change their target, especially once they register Lucretia as a completely normal human woman standing behind them. Perhaps they think they're protecting her.

Mistake.

She tries to cast shield of faith, but nothing happens. The magic sputters at her fingertips and dies. Is she out of spell slots?? She tries again, whispering the spell, but no dice, and now the person is turning back toward her with suspicions raised, so Lucretia just goes ahead and digs her elbow into the small of their back before they can do anything. Should be more than enough time for him to get his wand, and it doesn't matter that the last time she saw him involved him pointing his own staff threateningly at her, furious tears welling in his eyes. doesn't matter that she has no idea how he'll take any help she will offer him. The horror at the idea of Taako being hurt or killed overrides every bit of her uncertainty.)

<strongfish91>

[fuhuhuhuhu]

C'MON. everyone KNOWS that humans ran around with HUGE SWORDS and fought each other in EPIC BATTLES. don't even try to deny it!!!!!! you can't hide your swords from me!!!!!!!!!!

[waspyourface]

[Treating this as some kind of elaborate game-for-show would be philosophically similar to how Lucrezia views, well, everything, so she doesn't at all question Finnick's wording when he approaches her. She had seen him out of the corner of her eye before- she always has her eyes peeled for a snack- but she was content to let him come to her.

Imagine her delight when he addresses the world at large, in her close proximity.]

Darling, there are never any rules. The objective is always the same though, isn't it? Survive, plan, thrive, conquer.

2

[bornfromanger]

[Oh hey, is that screaming? Well that's a good way to grab Hakai's attention, it's not like whatever he was doing was important anyway.

So her shouts draw forth a gigantic purple dog, covered in large amounts of bright pink fluff. Truly the most ridiculous creature to have graced the world.

And he stares at her.

Intensely.]

DID THEY TAKE AWAY YOUR HORNS, TOO?!

[...For whatever reason, he sort of hunches down, holding both fists up like he's absolutely pumped at the idea of hearing that someone was also done dirty by the Fog God.]

[victorofsecrets]

[She can't know how well her answer fits into his theory: this is some kind of long-term game where he won't know what's coming until it comes. With the Hunger Games, he'd known death was around every corner. Now, he won't know where it lurks.

The cameras will be hidden, but they're present. That means Finnick has to wear his star face.

He grins suggestively in her direction, a common mode for him when in part. If she's another tribute, he doesn't recognize her as a past victor. That means she likely has a more important role.]

Conquer? [Be the strongest.] Are we supposed to conquer each other?

[waspyourface]

[She always assumes she knows exactly what to say, too, so the idea that she should question herself would never come to mind.

Oh, death still lurks around every corner, darling, just in the form of man-eating monsters, instead of children with knives.

Lucrezia preens a little under that gaze, fixing her hair, her dress.]

Isn't that always the way? Power and influence are everything, are they not? Anyone you can't control, you destroy.

[she tosses her hair.]

Lucrezia Mongfish-Heterodyne | Girl Genius

[waspyourface]

Three

As soon as those voices began to call to her, Lucrezia began to investigate. If there's someone here with the power to project their consciousness, she wants to meet them and steal their equipment immediately.

She expects to walk into the lab of a genius, with menacing machines and tables with straps, animals wearing helmets, and half-built clanks... What she doesn't expect are rows of boxes with once-bright colors all over them, gay in theme and obviously meant for merriment. Sure, the place has a different atmosphere now, but it still isn't the home of a Spark.

Lucrezia feels disappointed, until she spots the little robot whizzing by her.

"Well, now, what do we have here...?" She leans down to attempt to pick one of the little machines up and have a look at it. "Who built you, little one?"

Misc

byo prompt or ask me for another!

1

[tubedad]

[Did someone mention ass kicking? Because this is the exact kind of place for that.

Tyl's here because it's as close as he'll get to being in Uranus and a good place to practice his water magic. But nevermind that now, there's a log flying right at him.

Never to be outdone, this freakish spiky goblin with artificial hands and grabs it in mid air before slamming it into the ground.]

Didn't come here for a fight, but if it's 'ass kicking' you're looking for. [Darkly chuckles.] Then I suppose this is Ass Kick Beach.

1

[silenceofthesheep]

[Hey it's a person! Hey person!

Ever walk on a beach and see an animal that's small yet so big it borders on cryptid and mutant? Gregg is kind of that creature, waving at Emma.

Don't worry, he's got a hoodie so it's friendly.]

Nah, I don't think zombies are in the afterlife.

Unless it's zombie heaven. Which like, explains a lot.

[whiteofcrime]

Something in his chest skips a beat. It's been a while since anyone addressed him by name, in that cautious, disbelieving way people do when they aren't sure of their own eyes. He glances down, meeting the kelpie's(?) gaze, but his own roams blankly over their greenish features. They know him. But who are they?

"Hey...kiddo?" He clearly doesn't recognise who they are.

[victorofsecrets]

[She's definitely one of the people within the Capital.

Lips are seduction. He keeps his titled upward in a smile, slightly parted, as if trying to draw attention to his mouth.]

Or, you make them allies. [He walks closer. His original question was tossed to the universe, but now, he's far too close for most others to hear. Only her.] I'm a lot better to work with than destroy.

[waspyourface]

[If only she could be. She would have thrived in that environment. Being spoiled, rich, access to every technology imaginable, in a culture that practically worships violence? Oh yes, she would fit right in.

She hums a little note, taking stock of his body language. She takes her time to enjoy it- the view one gets being a very short woman is nothing to sneeze at. She makes a show of sizing him up, a hand on her hip.]

Hm, you are charming, but I don't often play nicely with others.

[whiteofcrime]

He hears the shout, sees the woman's attention shift away from him for a split second, and it's in that instance that he acts.

Kaito twists to one side and smacks the barrel of the gun the other way with his arm. He rolls and comes up on all fours, then propels himself forward while she's stunned, tackling her into the sand.

The sudden movements leave his head spinning. He squints through the sand trickling from his hair, lips raised in a snarl, taking some small, perverse pleasure in the brief bout of terror on her face.

Kill her, something whispers, and he presses down intending to call on his goblin powers to drain her, only to realise that they're gone. There's nothing. He's human.