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

Four!

[sinsation]

Punishing you?

[Cathy doesn't just appear out of thin air at the mere mention of punishment, she swears. She was just in the area at the time, really! Mulling over these strange new 'monster changes,' though, is something that immediately concerns her with relevance. She currently bears an extra pair of eyes closed below her regular pair, and her stump of a left arm seems to have sprouted feathers.

(Her hair has gotten longer, too, but she figures that's just been a matter of being here for awhile.)

She stares down at the woman on the beach. The air smells lighter as she stands there.]

Punishment is left up to the living to deliver, [she declares rather matter-of-factly.] What makes you think a spirit has it out for you?

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara growls low in her throat, a warning. Her body has become strange to her and she hates that even more than she hates being trapped with all these strange people. Many of them are human, or were once human before they changed. Already the process has started in on her. And however it ends, Kettara knows she will not be an orc when it ends. She will be something entirely different. Just like everyone else.

Perhaps, if she could take the long view like Master Muln, she could find some peace in that.

She jerks her tusks at the woman. She hopes she will not lose her tusks. ]

That is a human way to think.

[ And therefore it is stupid. She doesn't know if the woman started out human, but she looks like one. Still smells like one, too. ]

What would you know?

[sinsation]

[Cathy is unfazed by this woman's show of intimidation.] I suppose it is, [she remarks, bringing a finger to her lips in thought, but her smile does not waver.]

I was a condemner of sinners back at my home. I have a rather good eye for things like that. I know quite a lot about matters like punishment.

You're turning into something monstrous just like everyone else; this isn't for a crime you've committed elsewhere. Unless your ancestors are punishing everyone here.

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara does not like that smile. ]

A condemner of sinners. What does that mean?

[ Despite everything, she's curious. ]

[sinsation]

[No one likes that smile.]

I deliver just punishment to those who have committed crimes but have escaped their consequences. Those who wrongfully inflict pain and death upon others are dealt with by me. They'll be left running rampant otherwise, you see?

[She sits, though there is still some distance between the two.]

Perhaps it's different where you come from, but where I'm from, the dead stay dead. They have no standing on the living world. Maybe they deliver some form of punishment to each other when the guilty finally die, but in life, we have to handle it ourselves. We don't have any other choice.

[oldtonew]

Oh, I understand. You are an executioner.

[ It's one of the few human concepts that Kettara understands and accepts. It's better to slay an enemy in honorable combat, of course, but sometimes that cannot be done. To be an executioner is a difficult, but important profession. Surely this woman must possess both great skill and honor.

She flexes her hands again. It's difficult not to cut herself with the new claws. ]

The body dies. The spirit can stand much more. That endures.

[ Sometimes the body even comes back. But that is dark magic and she will not speak of it. ]

They endure, and watch. All my ancestors watch my actions. I must have been found wanting.

[ Kettara grows, lifting her chin. ]

i will show them. I will be better.

[sinsation]

[Cathy nods.] That's right.

I can't say I've seen any proof of people watching from beyond the grave. Maybe they do. Maybe they just don't where I come from.

Even then, though, punishment or not, you can always take it in stride. If it's something you deserve, then there isn't much to be done but find some new purpose in it. If it's not, well...

[She glances up at the sky.] I don't know who you would file a complaint with on that. But you can likely find some use for claws. Hell, I'm sure you could find some use for them that wasn't hurting people.

[oldtonew]

It is the orcish way.

[ She does not say it is better than the human way, though Kettara believes it wholeheartedly. But saying that won't help anything. She flexes her hands again, thoughtfully this time. It's true that she's known druids who could change their shape and become fearsome beasts. They were honorable fighters. Some of them were even great storytellers and took her among their circles, back when she was a child and feeling alone in the world.

Besides, claws are useful. ]

It's said the ancestors watch and test us, so they will know the truth of us when we finally join them.

[ Kettara likes to think she's not afraid of that, though she's afraid of other things. ]

What would you do with claws?

[sinsation]

[Cathy cocks her head in thought.] Hmm, I suppose that could be true. It seems there would always be another condemner waiting for us. I don't think I would be surprised, anyway.

[What would she use claws for?]

I'm not sure. Maybe I'd paint them. Maybe I would punish sinners with them. I suppose it would depend on the situation.