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

[standless]

A miracle? [He begins, not yet moving his hands away.] Whatever do you-

[Ah. He blinks, eyes following the motions- rather, the lack of motions. It's telling enough, and yet Jonathan's eyes don't linger on Johnny at all from that point. Instead he stands, squinting out at their surroundings while Johnny checks himself over.] Hmmm. ...In this weather, it'll be a miracle in itself even if anything washed ashore...for that matter I'm not sure it would get much traction on this sand...

[And that would be assuming Johnny's chair came with him at all- and he assumes the other has a chair, with how difficult it would likely be to get around otherwise. Given what he's heard from others, signs point to 'no'. This is a problem indeed. He looks back to Johnny- and, perhaps notably, doesn't have pity in his expression so much as hesitance. Not that he knows the other, but he imagines that most people stuck in the sand, used to a lack of mobility in the legs, would not take too kindly to what he's about to suggest.]

If you're open to it, I could see about getting you to a bench, or a chair at the least until a proper cart can be located... ...at the very least, I simply cannot leave someone here in this weather- it's far too cold for anyone to be at the shore.

[joestarsandstripes]

[Johnny's first instinct is to take offense, to raise his hackles and tell this guy to get lost because he doesn't need or want his help, but something stops him. Maybe it's how genuinely concerned the guy seems, maybe it's how he speaks with practicality instead of pity - maybe it's just that Johnny's too exhausted from dragging himself and his waterlogged clothes out of the goddamn ocean to throw a proper fit. Whatever the reason, he bites back whatever scathing comment he was planning on making and releases it as a hard sigh through his nose.]

[He looks the guy up and down again, wondering how much he can reasonably trust him, wondering why he seems vaguely familiar somehow.]

Honestly I'd rather have a horse.

[Right leg seems fine, time to check the left. A few bumps and scrapes, but nothing too bad.]

...Don't suppose you've seen an Appaloosa wandering around, have you?

[He doesn't wanna think about why Slow Dancer wouldn't have found him by now.]

[standless]

A horse? [The surprise is really more due to the fact that he's never ridden a horse, believe him.] Hmmm...I've certainly seen them here, but most of the people in this place operate things more akin to those 'steam carriages' that were being experimented with...I haven't even seen one horse carriage since coming here actually, [Jonathan adds with a frown.] It's quite concerning...

...I would hope it not be the case, but I suspect any specific horse you knew before would not have followed you here either, [he adds more softly] I...

[Ooof. How does he get to this.] ...As unbelievable as it shall sound, neither you nor myself are even in the realm we originated from.

We're in another realm entirely.

[joestarsandstripes]

[Luckily for Johnathan, Johnny is from the Jojoverse and has thus experience enough batshit crazy bullshit to accept the idea of alternate realities and parallel dimensions pretty readily. It helps that he recently discovered the President of the United States has that literal goddamn ability.]

[The trouble is, Johnny can't remember the President ever pushing or pulling him into a different dimension - and you don't just forget something like that. Is it possible someone else has a similar ability? Or maybe this is a different sort of Stand entirely - maybe this is all some sort of fabricated space, or an elaborate illusion.]

[He won't be able to figure it out until he finds the user, so he supposes he had better start looking. But first, he needs to get his ass on a saddle.]

Of course we are.

[His tone is flat and dry as the desert - not because he's skeptical, but because he absolutely believes every word Johnathan just said, because this is just his sort of luck.]

I don't suppose this 'realm' has a leader? Someone responsible for bringing people here?

[He needs to know who's ass he has to kick if he's gonna get back to his own world, and that seems as good a place to start as any.]

[standless]

[Fortunate indeed. At least Jonathan can manage a smile now.] You're certainly taking it rather well, [he remarks, narrowly avoiding 'in stride' as a comment instead. That wouldn't likely go over well.

As it is the smile fades, and he nods.] There is, yes. And not for lack of trying, those here have found themselves unable to leave for years. She seems to see herself as a 'god'- the only name I've been given for her is 'Fog God'.

[He gestures around them.] It's...certainly accurate.

Perhaps most concerning about her is that she does not hide herself from those here. It's a particularly worrisome level of confidence in her own power.

[...And speaks to the legitimacy, for sure.]

[joestarsandstripes]

"Fog God", huh?

[He shouldn't sound so skeptical, considering he's spent the last few months on an elaborate scavenger hunt for the desiccated corpse parts of Jesus Christ, but for some reason he sincerely doubts this person is as divine as they claim to be. He's seen people do some pretty god-like things with their Stands. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume this "Fog God" is just a particularly powerful Stand user with delusions of grandeur.]

[He'll have to look more into it later. For now, he needs to get out of these wet clothes and onto some kind of mobility device. Wheels or hooves, he'll take what he can get right now.]

So people know where she is? If I wanted to have a few words with her, someone could send me her way?

[He says this casually as he wrings out his skullcap, as though having words isn't an obvious euphemism for a much more violent interaction. Once his hat isn't completely sodden, he reaches behind his head for the collar of his shirt and tugs it up and over his head, so he can shake off all the sand and give it a good wringing out.]

[If Johnathan looks close enough he might just see a familiar-looking mark on Johnny's shoulder.]

[standless]

[Johnny's response is a grimacing nod- a grimace that's admittedly quite light, Jonathan being who he is, but a grimace all the same. He shares similar views on the Fog's so-called divinity after all.

Not that he knows what stands are, of course.] They do- I've admittedly not taken them up on their directions for the moment. Being as I am for now, I've little interest in arguing with someone who refuses to move on their own opinions, and I lack the power that would be required to challenge them with greater force. But there are absolutely those who can point to her location, [Jonathan continues, only to trail off somewhat awkwardly.

It is now, after all, that he catches a flash of something darker than the rest of Johnny's skin, an almost familiarly shaped blotch peeking out from the fabric of his shirt. He finds himself, confusedly, bringing his hand over his own shoulder- as if to check that what he sees matches roughly with a mark he himself has.

...It can't be, can it?] Ah..I should likely introduce myself, [He decides, pulling himself from those thoughts. It can't possibly be the same mark. That would be ridiculous, after all. He'll focus on more important matters for now.] To offer help, but no name, is far from proper of me after all.

My name is Jonathan Joestar, [He continues with a small smile.] Might I know yours?

[joestarsandstripes]

[Alright, that makes his job a little easier then - this Fog God must be pretty powerful if she's cocky enough to not bother hiding herself. That should be worrisome, but Johnny is fresh out of fucks to give. It doesn't matter how strong she is - she's standing in the way of his goals, which means one way or another, she's going down.]

[Deciding his shirt is as dry as it's reasonably going to get, Johnny gives it one last shake to clear off any lingering sand before slipping it back over his head. He only gets it half-way on before he stops dead in his tracks, struck dumb by a man he's never met throwing his own name at him.]

[He tugs his shirt the rest of the way down, his mind racing as he tries to discern whether this is just one hell of a coincidence, or if this guy is fucking with him. On one hand, he very much doubts this guy is capable of duplicity, but at the same time, Joestar isn't exactly a common surname.]

--Looks like you already do.

[He frowns slightly, mouth working as he tries to decide how he feels about this situation. Cautiously, he reaches up to offer Johnathan his hand, since he seems the sort of formal person who likes to punctuate introductions with a handshake.]

Johnny Joestar. Thought I was the first; guess I stand corrected.

[standless]

I'm sorry? [Already? That doesn't make much sense, he wants to say, unless...

...unless. Jonathan's expression brightens significantly, no doubt an odd expression to see in this situation.] J....Joestar? Then that was...

[Then that was the mark that he'd seen- and not some trick of the light at all!]

...I- [His mind, suffice to say, does not go to alternate dimensions. Johnny's clothes are too unfamiliar- instead, the man thinks of what Speedwagon told him of the short near future Jonathan himself had missed.]

You must excuse my shock. I knew I would have ultimately left descendants behind, but I never expected... [...He's...Crying. It's not a very noticeable one mind- his eyes simply water with elation and shock alike, all sadly based in one very incorrect assumption. It's just a lot.

A lot of unexpected good, in his opinion at least.] 'Johnny'? As in Jonathan as well then, I presume? [he laughs, the sound short and somewhat broken, punctuated by the surprise.]

...I never thought I would see any family ever again...

[Ah...] ...Not to impose, of course- we've only now met, I could never demand that sort of trust of another so quickly over shared names. I simply...

...I suppose I had ultimately resigned myself to never seeing what I was to miss, if that makes any sense.

[Besides that, he's given no thought for whoever Johnny left behind other than a horse. He shouldn't impose that kind of ideal of happiness on someone who just lost their world.]