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

[pawntakesking]

"Ugh." Regulus prides himself on keeping his emotions off his face, but his disgust at the idea is transparent. Bertie is almost worse than Sherbet Lemon. "I'd really rather not. Why don't you just call me..."

He glances sidelong at Potter again, and his thumb presses hard against the glowing mark on his arm, the phantom itch of it.

"Mr Black," he says, at last. It's not much of an alias. A Potter will undoubtedly know the House of Black, and nobody's likely to mistake him for Sirius - they may have looked alike as children, but between Sirius' rebellion and Regulus' determination to not turn out like his wild brother, that resemblance is long gone. Still, somehow it's easier to maintain at least a veneer of plausible deniability. "You may as well call me Mr Black."

Watching Potter sidelong as he says it, biting down on the inside of his cheek as he waits to see whether there will be a reaction.

[audax]

No, not Sirius. And unlikely to be Orion. (Harry can't imagine that he'd be as welcoming to a Potter in a strange land.) Either he's some mysterious future-Black, unlikely given that the line is dead, or Regulus.

"Ah, we're family then. Sirius was my godfather." He could let the issue lie, but that's never really been one of Harry's better qualities. Mr Black has a name now and it would be polite not to push. Still, if there's a chance, he might as well try. "Last I saw him, Kreacher was well. We didn't always get on at first, but we've learned to respect each other. Or, well, I respect him. I'm not entirely clear if he likes me or not, but neither he nor the house have been actively trying to poison me lately, so that's a plus."

[pawntakesking]

It feels, all at once, as though Regulus has been holding his breath since he first saw the other man on the beach - and as though, finally, he can let it go. He wouldn't relax just at the comment about Sirius, even though it means he can let go of the fear that this is James, even though it means that Harry knows who he is and hasn't immediately jumped on the defensive. That alone wouldn't be enough.

It's the last part that makes all the tension momentarily drop out of him, makes him break into one of the rare smiles that actually reaches his eyes. He looks, as it happens, a lot more like Sirius when he smiles.

"He's all right?" He almost laughs, his relief is so great. "Merlin, I've been worried since I got here. Draco said something about it, but..." But vague comments about what might have been going on in Draco's time haven't set his mind at ease nearly as much as this. Maybe it's because there's a ring of truth in how Harry talks about it, an honesty that doesn't make Regulus think that he's saying it just for the sake of politeness.

[audax]

"He's very much all right. I just saw him a few days ago when I was last at home between jobs." Harry looks at Mr Black and his own smile gets that little bit brighter and easier. This isn't an ideal situation, no, but it's far from the worst he's been in. "You mentioned Draco. Is he here too? He'll likely lord it over me that he arrived first and knows the lay of the land, but I don't mind so much."

A pause. "Don't tell him that I'd find his complaining somewhat reassuring. It's like a door that squeaks, but it's the door you know."

[pawntakesking]

Regulus' smile fades at that, and he looks away. "He was here." The emphasis is subtle, but clear enough, as is his momentary pang of grief. Draco might not have been someone he knew back in their own world, but he was family, and - perhaps even more importantly than that - he was someone Regulus had actually liked. It's been some months now, but his absence still stings, the one wedge between Regulus and his god. "Sometimes, people here... don't stay. The Fog God says it's not something She can help, but..."

But it still stings.

"I'm sorry." He clears his throat, and straightens his back a little. "This is a lot to take in. I ought to have waited until you at least had somewhere to sit down."

[audax]

Harry lightly touches Regulus' elbow, not much but it's a physical gesture of support. He may not know him well, but he can appreciate the loss of a friend. "We didn't really care for each other as much as we could've, but I am sorry."

"I can't promise that I won't have a proper bout of midnight terror as it sinks in, but I can listen and walk." Or he can be quiet as they make their way up and off the beach. Wrinkling up his nose, Harry tries to run his fingers through his tangle of curls and get them into some semblance of order. There's going to be sand and bits of twigs in everything.

[pawntakesking]

From the way Regulus tenses momentarily at the touch, it's clear he isn't entirely comfortable with it, but from the little nod he gives Harry, it's also clear that he does understand and appreciate the sentiment. He doesn't say anything more for a couple of moments, looking over at Harry as they walk.

"I have a bathtub in my flat," he says, a little uncertainly, at last. "You may as well use it. It's rather a waste of space, otherwise." One of the fringe benefits of being selectively incorporeal, it turns out, is that bathing isn't particularly necessary - or, actually, particularly easy. "And I imagine you'll need somewhere to stay tonight."

[audax]

"I'd appreciate that. I can sleep more or less anywhere, but a flat surface and a roof goes a long way." Since becoming an Auror, he's sat through some profoundly dull stakeouts and honed his napping skills. Truly, he may never be quite as good as Ron, but it's not a contest.

"I don't really seem to have anything much to trade except news from Britain, and I don't know how much use that is." Mulling it over, Harry realizes that he might as well go back to what he'd been good at in the past. "I can clean and I can mostly cook a few things. Nothing exceptional, but I can do eggs and the like?"

[pawntakesking]

"I don't eat a great deal." Not since he changed, anyway - and not of the kind of food he particularly wants to bring up to Harry just now. "I wouldn't say no to cleaning - I've done my best, but it really isn't as easy as Kreacher made it look - or to news from home. But... Well, you may as well consider it a favour." He clears his throat, lowering his voice unconsciously. "If what Draco told me is true, I think I owe you at least that much."

He appears to consider something for a moment, then nods, and smiles - taut again, and controlled, but a smile nonetheless. "Besides, as you said, we're family. Though I'm sure hearing me say that would give Sirius an embolism."

[audax]

"Then it's a deal." While Harry tends to be a private person, that's only because so many people seem confident that they know the 'real' him. Black doesn't seem interested in presuming all that much. With the truth and news as payment, he wonders how best to put the deal between them. Why not treat the arrangement like veritaserum? "And you're welcome to ask about anything or everything, but I do reserve the right to say no. I won't lie, but I might not be willing to answer."

"Oh, I'm sure, but given that I'm the last of it, at least in my, er, timeline?" Is that the word? It sounds a bit sci-fi. "I think I'm allowed to call us kin."

[pawntakesking]

He knew Sirius was dead in Draco's time, and so presumably in Harry's. He knew it, and had known it for almost two years at this point - and yet, in those two years, he must have allowed himself to forget it, because hearing the last of it, knowing what it means, still feels like a kick in the chest. He flinches slightly, and the edges of his ink-dark cloak tremble like smoke.

With an effort, he manages to school his features back into steadiness, and even twitches the corners of his mouth up in a tiny smile. "I suppose it could have been left in worse hands." Mine, for example. The thought isn't a new one, but the bitterness of it never fails to sting: the knowledge that the death of the Black line is on him, after all those centuries. "You don't mind cats, do you?"

They're getting close enough to Bavan, and to his café, for him to realise he hasn't actually asked.

[audax]

"I don't know if Teddy will take it up once he's old enough, but I've left everything to him. Andromeda's grandson, if Draco mentioned him?" Harry had done his best by his godchild, but he never really felt like he knew how to be a proper parent. Not yet. "I'm rather fond of him, even if he's in the stage where he's still perpetually a bit soggy and often sticky. I don't know how he does it, but I think he exudes jam."

Toddlers. What can you do, right?

"And I don't mind cats at all. Never really had a problem with any sort of animal; although I'm not overly fond of rats in large numbers."

[pawntakesking]

Regulus stops walking for a moment, looking at Harry fixedly and rather strangely. At last, quietly, he says "I'm not sure I even knew Andromeda had a child. Let alone a grandchild. I..." He frowns, passing a hand over his face, and looks away. "Draco and I didn't talk about it much. Not after I first arrived."

And now, he can't help but feel guilty for that. Perhaps it's a mark of how he's changed since arriving here, but he feels a deep and uncomfortable shame at the realisation that he never even wondered about Andromeda, in all of the introspection and all the consideration he's given to his life back home. When she was blasted off the tapestry, in a very real sense, she ceased to exist to him. That...

He still struggles with some of what he's been told is wrong. But that, now that he looks at it face-on, is definitely wrong.

[audax]

"Now you look like you need a cup of tea and to sit down. Why don't we talk about pointless things, like the weather and Quidditch, until we get to your place?" There's another gentle, not-quite there touch to Black's elbow. Would he hug Regulus if they were close friends? Or would he treat him the same? In any case, he's decided that they're family and there's no going back from that.

Harry Potter and The Snap Decision is the next book in the series.

"Without magic, there's no Quidditch here, I suppose. What do they play instead? Football? Or something new?"

[pawntakesking]

"Do you know, I'm not actually sure."

Regulus sounds surprised even as he says it, not having given it any thought up to right now - and that, in itself, is strange when he considers it. After all, Quidditch was always one of the few passions of his outside of books and politics. That he hasn't even thought of finding a replacement for it is... surprising, on reflection. Perhaps it says something about how he's changed, or about how this place has changed him. He files the thought away for future consideration, and for now, just shakes his head and tries to clear his thoughts.

At least this time when Harry touches his elbow, he doesn't flinch away as he did before.

"I suppose you could play something like Quidditch, though. There are no brooms, but there are plenty of monsters who can fly..."