graveyardsmash | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.]

Test drive meme: January

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