graveyardsmash | Test drive meme: January

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Test drive meme: January

TEST DRIVE MEME: ~~NOVEMBER~~ JANUARY

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.

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[1]
[The first thing Cassandra tries to do as her consciousness returns is suck in the breath that was just prior forced out of her chest. This, as it seems, was a mistake. With several choking coughs, the sand is expelled from her mouth, and her vision begins to come into focus. There's enough time in between it so her other mental faculties could return to their normal state.

Pain. That's what she registers at first, and more of it beyond the soreness in her ribs from nearly being crushed in an iron grip. Scrapes and cuts on her arms and legs that she doesn't remember getting make themselves known with a stinging need. Sea salt, and sand, fills her nose, bot that's hardly an uncommon scent for her. Corona was a kingdom by the sea... but she had just been in a landlocked region. Had she been moved?]

Oh boy... [Her voice comes out raspy, dry from the sand and coughing. Finally, Cassandra finds the strength to start picking herself up.] I didn't think Varian got me that badly, but-

[Cassandra's eyes finally open, right into the barrel of a shotgun aimed straight at her face. And, further up still, she finds the person pointing it at her.

The weapon itself is lost on her, but the inherent threat is quite clear. She's been around enough cannons to know the smell of gunpowder and what it does.

Lovely time for her rapier to be missing.]

Hey... easy now... I... think I'm lost.

[2]
[Cassandra is not used to people looking on her with such scorn. Being typically on the right side of the law all of her life, and working hard to keep it that way, this was a harsh change, and not one for the better.

Why did she apparently have to start changing? Magic mishaps didn't come after her, not before she met Raps. And now she was "chosen" to become one of the many monsters she'd caught around this place? Hard pass, honestly. But since when did people listen to her?

Making matters not any better was her temper. Case in point, when one person gets too cocky and approaches her with his pitchfork... and finds himself on his back, moments later. His pitchfork, now in Cass's able hands, pointed down at him.]

Let's get this straight, okay? [She speaks bluntly to him, to all the other people semi-gathered around her. Her tone a forced calm.] I didn't ask to come here. And I don't want any more trouble today, but there's going to be trouble if this keeps up. Got it?

[She doesn't wait for an answer before driving the pitchfork down... into the earth beside his head, and stomps away.]

[4 (Harpy)]
[The changes were both irritatingly sudden, and din't come fast enough.

First, there were feathers. A few at first, but they quickly sprouted all along her arms and legs. No amount of plucking would get rid of them all. And, eventually, the pain outweighed the pros.

Then, her legs changed. As if by overnight - which, in hindsight was a small blessing - they morphed into something more... bird-shaped. They bent differently, and were capped off with sharp talons. The sort that Owl had. She missed him.

Lastly, she just felt lighter in every way. Normally so connected to the ground, Cassandra sometimes believed she would lift right off the ground if she didn't keep a constant focus on not letting that happen.

It doesn't always work.]

Whoa! Whoa, okay! I got this!

[She's a few feet off the ground, but it may as well be miles to her. The frantic flapping of her arms betrays the fact that she's never done this before in her life.]

Nope! I just want to be on the ground! Stupid wings!

Edited 2019-02-11 08:02 (UTC)

[Ray meanwhile was having a blast in turning into a werewolf. Sure, the pain of daily turning into a wolf monster wasn't great, but it was fascinating! Plus it had the nice bonus of not completely losing his sense of self every time he turned into a were.

And! More monsters too!

He hears Cassandra yelling from a distance and goes to see the source of the commotion.

Frankly, he's ecstatic with what he sees.]

You can fly?! I'm jealous; I wish I could do that here!

[His tail is wagging and it doesn't seem like he's really noticing her fear yet.]

[Sure, her friend Rapunzel might have found more excitement and curiosity in turning into a half-bird monster, but Cass was always the more practical sort. She didn't care for it. She just wanted things to be okay for once.

But nope. Monsters. And now, there's more monsters!]

Oh yeah, it's just great. I love the feathers everywhere, all the time.

[said very flatly to the dog man.]

Trust me, you're way more excited about this then I am.

[Be careful what you wish for, because Star flies out of nowhere and tackles Cassandra to the ground]

BIRD BUDDIES!

Oh n-

[She hears Star before she shows up, and even still, she can't manage to dodge the tackle. So she and Star go down in a tangle of limbs and feathers.

She is far less happy about this turn of events.]

Oof! Hey! get off of me, kid-! [Kid... bird?] Wait, you're one of these things too?

Edited 2019-02-12 07:56 (UTC)

[Star rolls off and jumps to her feet like nothing happened.]

Yeah! We're the same thing! Which means we're BIRD BUDDIES now!

Bird Buddies. Right.

[Finally free, Cass starts to pick herself up with not the greatest of ease.]

You... definitely look way more excited about turning into a bird then me.

[Elsa's been here long enough now that it's easy to anticipate when new arrivals would be coming, and where, usually. There's an occasional twist, like the flesh hospital or that time everyone got stuck in the freezing-cold ward of the normal hospital after that one... rage incident, but most of the time it's the beaches of Vandare that new arrivals appear at. So she's already there when she hears an angry voice, and upon investigation-

Ah. Well. Okay then!! She'll run to catch up to the raven-haired woman (after stopping to help the man up, though he refuses the help of someone so obviously a monster now), a light frown on her face.]

Try not to hold it against him. The people here... they have every right to be wary of those who arrive in the same manner that you did.

[It's hard to say where Cassandra was going to stomp off to. She didn't know herself. Anywhere other than there, honestly. She felt the need to blow off some of her anger, and doing that to ordinary people... ordinary armed people nevertheless... Yeah, that wouldn't be right.

Not unless they came after her. Then it's fair.

Sounds of movement behind her half-convinced her that her thoughts were coming true. And she turned partway to face it- Oh.

It's a monster. Well, one of the people who have been here long enough for that to happen. What she'd become, if she stays here long enough herself.]

Yeah? Well I didn't ask to be here in the first place. [This girl didn't deserve to get the blunt of Cass's pent-up aggression. But she can't help some of it.] The last thing I want while I'm here is to start trouble, but I can barely walk through town without someone telling me to get out.

[It's fine this is fine. Even if she's fairly harmless as far as monsters go, with the only noteworthy things being her sharp teeth and claws - which she hides behind her back to hopefully not put this woman on edge even more than she already is - she is still a monster. A monster telling her that maybe that guy that just tried to attack her wasn't so bad; she can understand the frustration, even if Elsa herself was more scared than angry when she first showed up.

And hey, at least this young woman isn't threatening to set her on fire like Lup did. That... that's a step up.]

I understand. [Her voice is nothing but sympathetic, so it's definitely not really empty words there.] It's unfortunate, that most of the time new arrivals show up here, when Bavan is much more welcoming.

They'll calm down. The locals just... get a bit jittery during these times. It's hard, not knowing what to expect.

[Setting someone on fire was the last thing Cass wanted to do, even if the idea presented itself as a rather appealing threat in this troubling time. But she'd never do that. That's wrong.

The irony of what this girl is telling her isn't lost on Cassandra, but she appreciates it... deep down. This girl and her sympathy, and that look on her face. Her own, hard-edged expression softens, just a bit.]

Guess that's one thing we have in common. There's no telling what to expect out of this.

[Except there is. She knows the truth already, she's read the pamphlets.]

...We- I'm going to change, aren't I? Into a monster.

[Geez, the people here are getting sharper and sharper, aren't they? Or at least more no-nonsense. Elsa usually tries to save the monster thing for last, to ease them into the absurdity of their current situation, but... seems like she can't do that now.

She sighs, nodding as her gaze drops away from Cassandra in a way that almost seems like guilt.]

It's true, yes. In a month, you'll begin to change, and despite many others being trapped here for far longer, nobody's been able to find a way to stall it, let alone reverse it.

[Cassandra has prided herself on being no-nonsense. It only came to a point where there was a little nonsense when Rapunzel entered into her life. All the same, she still enjoys getting right to the point of things.]

That figures. [She groans. It's frustrating, but it's not like Elsa is to blame for the news. She would have eventually pieced it together based on the villagers reactions alone.] Guess I should have known, sooner or later, I'd have to deal with some weird, magical thing.

[Ohhhhh dear, there goes Elsa's anxiety. With how long she's been in Ryslig, and how used she is to people like Lup and her family being so okay with magic or practicing magic of their own... Elsa's started to forget that there are people out there who really don't like magic. Which is okay!! They have a very good reason to fear magic! But it's just... oof. It's like a scab coming off a wound that hasn't really healed yet, so she's feeling a bit awkward right now.

She tries to laugh it off, but that awkwardness definitely bleeds through a little bit.]

You've, ah... had bad experiences with magic?

["bad experiences with magic?"

She opens her mouth to answer the obvious but haaaa the thought suddenly strikes her that maybe she doesn't want to let slip about Rapunzel's seventy feet of indestructible hair. It doesn't have healing power anymore, and it doesn't seem like she's even around here, but.... what if it gets back to Corona that she was responsible for taking her to the black rocks, which lead to it growing back in the first place?

The king and her dad already know that, she doesn't need everyone else knowing that too.

So, she... laughs, a little. It's awkward because she's already terrible at covering for herself.]

It's not all bad, I guess. But I mean, not really? I mean, not... specifically me. It's my friend, magic has kind of been a part of her entire life, so that means it's a part of my life now.

And... I guess I'd say that seventy feet of un-cuttable hair is a bad experience with magic.

[L makes a habit of scoping out the new arrivals. As Ryslig's monster prison warden, he has a punishing task (albeit one that is largely self-appointed.) Human and monster relationships are shifting and ill-defined even at the best of times, and when more of them show up, well... things can get a little understandably tense. One of them, a young woman with dark hair and an apparently reactive nature, is already causing trouble, well before her first changes, and though L dislikes mingling as a general rule, he judges that it just might be necessary to step in.

A large, shadowy figure grips her arm as she begins to stalk away from the human. The rest of the crowd is starting to skitter backward, giving them a wider berth, because while that looming, dark shape is certainly large and intimidating, it isn't the monster.

The monster is at its back, a pale and solemn young man with demonic features. Heat sloughs off his narrow, winged frame, ruffling the tattered grey feathers and his messy, dark hair. His flesh is a tortured, sutured patchwork. His eyes are hollow and inverted, white pupils on black sclera. He wears a suit, but does so in a way that suggests he would rather not; the buttons on his shirt are misaligned, his tie and belt are flat-out missing, and his blazer is both wrinkled and a bit too large.]

I've seen people get off to a friendly start, before, but you seem like the competitive sort who wants to set the bar even higher.

[What a drag, his tone says.]

Edited 2019-03-13 20:01 (UTC)

[A dark shape in the corner of Cassandra's eye was the only thing she noticed before she felt her arm be pulled back. Her nerves, already rattled by the turn of events today, managed to reign in that fiery attitude until after she saw who had grabbed her. This was most definitely not one of the townsfolk previously harassing her.

Honestly, she's a little spooked by the figure, and the monster that quickly makes himself known. It's plain in the way her eyes widen when L steps out, but the moment passes quickly. He was... a guy, with certain features that wouldn't be out of place in a bible, but a guy nonetheless.

She shakes the arm in his grip. There's no deliberate struggling, not yet.]

Sorry, can't say I'm a fan of getting poked and prodded - or of people getting into my personal space.

[The figure gripping Cassandra's arm is quite literally a shadow given solid form, too large to be feasibly cast by the demon it's apparently attached to. These types of powers and rewards don't always follow natural laws, however, something L takes full advantage of. The more off-balance and uncertain people are in his presence, historically, the more of an edge he tends to have.

He remains just behind the shadow, using it as a shield to keep himself both protected and inaccessible. Even the humans at his back don't seem too keen on approaching him, though.]

It's quite alright.

[He responds evenly, merely assuming that she's not being sarcastic or referring to his shadow.]

They won't bother you while I'm here, but... didn't anyone tell you that new monsters are better off lying low? It seems like that's one of the first things most people hear...

[For Cassandra's sake, she's seen enough strange and downright mystical happenings to know when she's looking one in the face. It's impressive, alright. But it ain't awe-inspiring. But it seemed like a lot of the monsters around here has special abilities all their own.

Food for thought, later probably.]

Let me guess? You mean all of those pamphlets that got shoved in my face? Those were super helpful. [Except not really. At least, not most of them. At least they gave her an idea of how things worked around here.]

And who's saying that I'm going to turn into a monster, huh?

I mean that you seem resourceful, and even if it takes some digging, most new arrivals are able to piece together an accurate enough picture of what they need to do to survive until they grow their claws and fangs. For now, you're still essentially a human... a crowd like that knows what you're going to become, and even if you can take on one, or several, by yourself... you can't take down an entire angry mob.

[He speaks without ridicule or judgment. These are just facts, after all, because...]

Unless the Fog God gets bored of you and sends you home within the first month or so, you're definitely going to turn into a monster. The more you deny that it's possible, the more foolish you'll look later, and you seem like the type who really hates looking foolish.

You don't know me. [Which isn't to say that she could take down an entire angry mob, just that she'd definitely give them a run for their money, at the least. But this is also her choosing to argue with someone who presumes things of her, once again.]

So it just happens to everyone, no matter what? [That... doesn't sit well with her, if the slight change in expression is any indication.] Great. Weird new magic that's going to affect me and I don't even have a say in it.

[Why couldn't she just grow seventy feet of uncuttable hair?]

So how do I go about getting sent home, then?

That's probably true.

["Probably," meaning that he is distinctly implying that he feels he has a great deal of her figured out within the first minute of their meeting.]

As I mentioned... the only exception is leaving the way you came before the changes can start, and the only way that happens is wholly outside of your ability to control. Or mine, or anyone's. Otherwise, very few of us would be here.

Fantastic.

[Cassandra literally rolls her eyes. The amount of nonsense she'd been put through in this year alone...]

Being here is already a blast.

[L waits, patiently, for her contempt to work itself out. He is familiar with the desire to express it, even colorfully at times, in spite of his rather deadpan presentation.]

I don't know if it's any comfort whatsoever, but you actually will adjust in time. You might even find that when you become a monster, a part of you wonders if it was what you were always meant to be.

[This happens to be something he's incredibly ambivalent about, himself.

The crowd of people are beginning to disperse. None of them are willing to approach with a full-fledged demon present. They're wiser for it.]

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Test drive meme: January

Cassandra | Tangled: The Series

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