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

YAAA

[pocketspa]

Honestly, picking the wrong person to ask is probably the theme of the hour. He's tried talking to some locals, but the ones who haven't just politely avoided his gaze are already weirded out by the ears and he personally thinks that's racist. Thankfully, someone here has decided to find some fucking chill, and he'll take that and run with it.

He grins lazily at this confused weirdo, thinking he can probably work with this. "I mean, they are called food places? The question is what they consider food, like. If these things are right in a month or two we're all gonna be trying to eat them instead of whatever they're serving, so maybe their idea of food is more cannibal-y."

Great. That's gonna do well in making this guy not freak out. But this is how he's getting out his nerves about the situation. "You see anyplace that serves burgers made out of cows, assuming cows exist? I'd even take a veggie at this point if it tastes decent, I just don't wanna be that guy who finds a finger in his fantasy frostee, you feel?"

[blackplantasia]

It's less that Ed looks 'freaked out' and more that he's wearing a horribly dumbfounded expression by the time the wizard is done saying anything, primarily on account of the fact that he has no idea what half of these words even mean. As far as he's concerned he just had a whole load of gibberish spouted at him with the confidence of a god. He's quiet for a moment as he tries desperately to digest it all, hoping the guy in front of him won't grow bored waiting for that to happen. He'd really like for some company to stick around.

Eventually, he coughs as he pulls out one of the pamphlets he'd been ignoring. "...if they were okay with serving us human meat," he murmurs as he skims over 'Eat Mor Chikin: Staving Off Starving Without Sinning,' "I don't think they'd be trying so hard to get us to not do that, even if the actual consumption would be on different terms." He doesn't spend long looking it over and soon pockets it again. "And anyway, surely they wouldn't only serve people even if they are okay with it? You could probably just ask what's in it. I don't think they'd lie to you about it."

He sure hopes they wouldn't lie about something like that. It'd be kind of fucked up if they did, given everything.

"So I guess in the end the challenge is just finding a place that serves food.

"...I wouldn't be able to tell you how hard that is to do. I usually cook at home." As in, he has to cook at home.

[pocketspa]

Taako's pretty used to that face- it's a fairly standard face when talking to him by just about anyone. It's not gonna make him any less behind his words, so yeah, he can hang. Besides, the best kind of people to find in an unknown space are people willing to go with his bullshit in a way that lets him do what he wants, so as far as he's concerned this guy is a real catch.

He peers around at the pamphlets the other man is holding to see if they're any different than the ones he has, but it seems to be fruitless. He just shrugs, prepared for some other response when Ed drops the nugget of knowledge he cares about, his grin going wide again. "You cook at home, huh? Professionally, or just for funsies?" This is the sort of thing he's interested in hearing about, but if he hasn't been to a lot of restaurants, he's dubious about how that came about. "You only ever eat your own stuff?"

[blackplantasia]

Taako is undoubtedly one of many people here to recognise Ed's propensity for getting suckered by letting other people do as they please. He's had enough experience with the unfamiliar to believe that keeping an open mind about his situations and adapting as he learns more about them is the best way to keep his own hide intact. Making brash assumptions about things won't help him, so for now he's along for the ride on the Taako Train even if he has exactly zero idea of what this ride entails.

It's a little scary, actually.

'Just for funsies' doesn't quite describe it, so he attempts to clarify. "Ah, man, I wish I could do it professionally, but my hometown isn't big enough for that sort of thing. I cook for my brother and me." Hopefully that answers whether he only eats his own stuff. Ed feels like he's in a bit better mood than just a moment ago just from talking about this, though. "It's mostly soups and stuff since that's the easiest meal to make with whatever we've got, so I guess I don't know if that counts as being 'good' at it, but Juno says he likes it, so that's really what matters to me!"

His shoulders raise into a sheepish shrug. "Do you cook?"

...and then, a moment later, he coughs. "Jeez, I don't think I introduced myself... Call me Edward." He pauses, not necessarily waiting for a response but rather trying to find the right words to say. Talking to this guy makes him kind of nervous. "...what can I call you?"

[pocketspa]

Listen, Taako has two different favorite kinds of people. One are the kind that push back against him in a playful way, the same kind of sass he dishes out in a way he can respect. The other are the kind that let him do whatever the fuck he wants. Edward is slotting himself nicely into the second bit, and that really just gives him a lot of leverage here.

He lets the other man get through his stuttered run before he grins wide, probably looking a lot like knife cat as he tries to put together the most badass way he can present the information that he now has the opportunity to give. "Taako. From TV. Professional interplanetary chef to the greats."

Yes, he's exaggerating, but no one here will know the entire difference. "So yeah, I cook. All kinds of stuff, depending on what's on hand. Anything from the basest stew to the fanciest shit, I'm your dude."

[blackplantasia]

Ed looks like a lot of things with this new information. Confused is definitely one of them, but astonished is definitely another; "TV" predictably has no meaning to him, but Taako sounds really important and cool regardless, so he's definitely a fan, ears perking as his eyes practically twinkle. He also looks a little sheepish, though, like he's gone and embarrassed himself somehow. Truthfully, it's because he feels like he has; it was probably silly of him to have considered himself a decent cook in the presence of this guy.

Mostly it's his gut reaction to being floored that something he takes great pride in probably comes really easily to Taako, so presenting it as something really cool feels silly now. He'll get over it when everyone's turning into monsters.

"...that's... really cool." He's speechless otherwise, starstruck. "If it's not super presumptuous, I'd... like to try your food sometime, if the opportunity ever arises." Ed would normally extend a similar offer, but it feels sort of pointless to do that here, with Taako. Like showing a blacksmith how to make a knife.

"Were you cooking for someone before you came here?"