TEST DRIVE MEME: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

[ryslighelpers]

TDM: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

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

[hogback]

Adam's own accent is English. Very English. Not Cockney or RP or anything, just your regular, average, middle of the road English accent.

He eyes the tall man suspiciously.

"Who're you? D'you know where we are? ...Why're you dressed like that?"

Adam had met angels and demons and avatars of the Apocalypse, but he's never seen anyone in a checkered tophat.

[speedweed]

That's a lot of questions and he's just sighing slowly to himself and moving to sit down again, better than standing around and looking more intimidating due to his size. Which he tends to forget from time to time given his best friend was almost half a foot taller than him and an utter giant. But details.

"Lots of questions and I have little answers for them." Which is the honest truth when it comes down to it. But he can answer at least two of the three, which is better than none.

"Robert E O Speedwagon, or just Speedwagon is fine. This is... my normal clothing? Most people where I'm from dress like this or at least try to. Minus the hat, but that's a... reminder of a friend who passed." He'd rather have his bowler hat with the saw blades right about now. But this is fine.

"Dunno where we are, though. I ended up washed ashore the same as you not that long ago."

[hogback]

Robert E O Speedwagon is a bit of an odd name, but Adam knows people named Anathema and Aziraphale and Wensleydale, so he's not about to judge. He remains standing, one arm crossed across his middle to hold onto his scraped up arm. In a situation as uncertain as this, he doesn't want to give up what little power or authority he might have.

"We should... See if there's a village nearby." That would be the smart thing to do, wouldn't it? It would take longer to walk than if he had his bike, but he won't get anywhere standing still.

[speedweed]

It's an odd name even in his time, but no one really tended to question you when there was a knife or something against their throat. But now's not the time or place for that sort of nonsense. He's taking note of his arm for a brief moment before pushing himself to stand.

"I was only waiting to make sure my clothing was dry first." Also not a lie. He's going to go check on that. The coat is still damp, but everything else seems fine for the time being. At least he'll feel better with not having his chest exposed for much longer and with some shoes on.

"If there's one nearby, I would assume there'd be some semblance of a path or road from here or close to here..." And he doesn't see anything to really indicate that just yet.

"And it hardly seems fair to give my name and not get on in return."

[hogback]

Adam blushes slightly, feeling embarrassed for his poor manners. What would his mum say?

"I'm Adam. Adam Young." A perfectly normal name for a perfectly normal boy.

He walks a few more steps away from the ocean, peering out at the stretch of barren land.

"If we could get up high, we could see if there's a road..."

He could do it, fly up into the clouds for a better look, but he's trying very hard to be a normal boy, and isn't sure if he should.

I am so sorry

[speedweed]

"A fine name, Adam." One that has a history to it, not that he's going to go that far right now. It's a perfectly normal name, as most tend to be as far as he's aware of.

For a brief moment he's humming to himself as he's mulling over a small idea, he is about six foot tall or some such, not as tall as his friend, but tall enough. And Adam doesn't seem like he'd weigh that much...

This is a dumb idea and should be apologized for in advance, so hopefully he won't mind that he's going to not give him any sort of warning to try and scoop him up and get him to his shoulders. Or something equally as dumb.

Look, he acts more than he thinks over these things.

"Maybe this would help a bit...?"

[hogback]

It does have history behind it, though perhaps not the exact same history Mr. Speedwagon means.

Adam yelps a bit as he's hoisted up onto Mr. Speedwagon's tall shoulders, but after a moments recovery he starts laughing. He's never really been lifted like this. Even when he was a little kid, his dad never picked him up to ride on his shoulders. It's a bit brilliant, really.

"That's not exactly what I meant..." He says, still laughing. But now that he's achieved this meager height, he'll put it to good use, looking as far out as he can see.

"There!" he calls, pointing. "I can see lights out there! There must be a village."

[speedweed]

Oh, admittedly that's not what he was expecting the reaction to be. But it's at least a relief that he's not upset by it or anything of that sort. Despite having literally no kind of power to speak of other than being a normal human, the weight doesn't bother him much. He's been through worse, after all.

"An immediate need, an immediate answer." He's musing to himself, but the moment he's calling and pointing, that's enough to get him to drop most of his joking nonsense.

Lights. He assumes he means something akin to gas lamps or candles, but how those could be seen from a distance he hasn't the foggiest. Oh well, better to not question it and head in that direction instead.

"Might take a bit to get there. Mind my asking where you're from? The accent's familiar, though a little off compared to what I'm used to." A couple eras might do that.

[hogback]

Adam sits on Mr. Speedwagon's shoulders unsure whether he should ask to be put down now that he's spotted the lights in the distance.

"I'm from Tadfield. It's in England."

Clearly he doesn't need to explain further, because Tadfield is only the most important village in all of England.

[speedweed]

It'd probably be quicker like this, or at least he thinks so, what with the differences in strides. And completely ignoring the fact that Speedwagon's decided that this is a totally fine and normal thing at this point.

Tadfield. A village in England? He wasn't too familiar with all the little villages around the country, so it'd make sense if he didn't recognize that one.

"Ah, I see. I'm from London myself, or, well, a part of it." No one ever really took well to hearing Ogre Street's name, so London itself would suffice. "Being out by yourself seems rather dangerous in an unknown place, don't you think?" If he has to babysit, it's fine, wouldn't be the first time.

To be fair his last "charge" was actually twenty years old and just a sheltered rich boy, but that's fine.

[hogback]

"I know some people from London!" Well, technically they're from Heaven and Hell, respectively, but they live in London. "My mum says I'm not old enough to go to London by myself, and my dad won't take me." He'd really wanted to find Mr. Aziraphale and Mr. Crowley and thank them, after everything was over, but he never got the chance.

"We'll just get to the village and ask which way it is back to Tadfield, and you can take a bus from there back to London."

He says, completely sure that's the way things are going to work out. Because why wouldn't things go as Adam wanted?

[speedweed]

Knowing someone from London wasn't too unusual, the damn city itself was huge even during his time. But if he knew he was talking about two beings from Heaven and Hell, it'd be another thing entirely. Perhaps it's better that he doesn't find that whole mess out.

He's frowning for a moment, the season is entirely different than it should have been back home. That beach looked nothing familiar and he's pretty sure that wherever they are, it probably isn't in the UK to begin with.

"Perhaps that will be our luck, though I have a sneaking suspicion that might not be the case." Nor is this a country he's familiar with, which is even odder in the scheme of things. "What year was it for you, by the way?" His clothing seemed strange and the way he spoke even more so.

He'd seen weirder things, but time traveling would be a new one.

[hogback]

"No, it will be." Adam is very sure, because things always turn out the way he wants them to.

He looks down at the top of Mr. Speedwagon's tophat. What an odd question.

"It's 2018. What year do you think it is?"

[speedweed]

Poor kid will learn one day, maybe. If Speedwagon's assumptions are correct, which they absolutely are not, given who this kid is.

He's slowing his pace until he's stopped, slowly blinking as his mind is already calculating how far in the future that is.

That's. A lot.

Right, keep walking. Deep breaths.

"It was 1889 last time I had heard."

[hogback]

That shocks Adam to hear. Not many things do, but that does.

With awe, "Are you a time traveler??"

Wait. Oh no.

"...Am I a time traveler?" It would be just like him to accidentally find a way to travel through time.

[speedweed]

Perhaps it'd explain Speedwagon's odd choice in clothing. Either way, he's frowning to himself as he contemplates the answer, continuing to move towards those lights.

Could it be this place they don't know the location or name of yet? It could be possible, that's the only common factor in this situation that he can find.

"As absolutely insane as it may sound, I don't think either of us are the time traveler in this place. There may be someone or something else to blame for us being in the same place at the same time. Not that I have a clue as to what or who it may be." A place can't be sentient after all, right? That's just absolutely ridiculous.

[hogback]

Adam's heart sinks into his stomach. He doesn't like dealing with things he doesn't understand or can't control. And this place is starting to seem too big for him to deal with properly.

"Do you mean... We won't be able to get back to Tadfield from here?"

[speedweed]

"Unfortunately that would seem the case." Of course it would be, why doesn't he have the answers he desperately wished he did?

He's sighing a bit, slowing his steps just a little more.

"Perhaps there's a way out of this mess, but I wouldn't know unless we ask someone where those lights are?"