graveyardsmash | JANUARY/FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE

TDM: JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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

The best part of it is, perhaps, the fact that he's not even scooting away due to him being an undead abomination. Not long ago he'd been in... mostly the same boat, it's more the fact he does not know him that's dragging everything up to the surface.

But he's giving his name, trying to smile with... what skin doesn't seem to be there. Perhaps this is something for him to not be too worried about. Though he's eyeing his hand for another brief moment, seeming far more confused by the gesture than anything else. Handshakes of a sort existed, certainly, but it was a way to seal a deal instead of a greeting.

"You shake when you greet someone?" There's a faint hint of amusement in his tone as he turns his attention back to his face once more. He can play with this and if something goes wrong, he's fairly certain he can have the upper hand if necessary. "Haku. I take it by your mannerisms and being a doctor that you were not how you were before, as these pamphlets have said? As I can say, with certainty, that I have yet to run across someone undead helping others." Blunt and to the point, but that's merely his nature.

"Yeah, that's about the shape of it. Believe it or not, I wasn't always the dashingly-handsome zombie you see before you. Once upon a time, I had organs." The faces he can pull are limited, given his decayed form, but somehow the comical grimace is audible in his voice. "You shouldn't take everything in those pamphlets at face value, but I'm afraid they're right about that."

He looks down at his still-outstretched hand, then shrugs and lets it drop back into his lap. "Although you shouldn't assume the horribly malformed creatures of the damned can't be doctors. I'm pretty sure that's racist, or something."

Everything seems to be at face value and it's helping put him at ease, given that he's actually getting a small laugh out of him that is quickly hidden behind a hand. Perhaps this is a fine situation. "I would think most zombies would have been a living being at some point or another, I think that is genuinely the definition of how to become a zombie, is it not?" He does have a point there.

Racist? Are zombies a race now?

He's blinking slowly at him for a moment or two before quickly moving onto another subject, safest bet. "This place has a name, correct? I take it that it is somewhere not connected to where I am from? Because this certainly does not seem familiar to me in the slightest and I had traveled quite a bit." Also, if Hawkeye is paying attention, he may notice that despite his mostly pristine appearance that there is rather nasty torn hole of his clothes around where his heart is. The skin seems fine, at the very least. Even if he has tried to do what he can to put together a way to cover the actual exposed skin.

"That's pretty normal for here," Hawkeye agrees, nodding, and scratches the back of his skull. "It's kind of messed-up in general, to be honest with you. We're almost certainly not even on your... world, planet, whatever you want to call it. We're definitely not on mine." Two years, and that's still weird. Thirty years of not believing in other worlds dies pretty hard. "Anyway, this is... well, the town's Bavan, but I'm guessing you meant a bit wider than that? This is the Ryslig peninsula. I've got a map back at the clinic, if you want a copy. I mean, not a good map, but still a map."

"Is it... perhaps some sort of afterworld, then? A place beyond the living realm, whether it be a point between that and whatever lies beyond or something that is... more abstract?" He isn't quite sure, but he's slowly sliding back to the theory that this is absolutely some sort of place for those to be punished for what they have done. Whether it be large or small, not that he's fond of that ideal. But if that is the case, then perhaps...

"Ryslig peninsula... That is absolutely not something I am familiar with. Though I assume the different... world of sort theory is correct, given I cannot access certain things I could do before I ended up here?" He could say chakra, but perhaps being vague about it is for the best here. "Rather strange that something like that could be cut off from me, but there are techniques that can, I suppose." He's far too captivated on this notion to be swayed by an idea of a map just yet. Sorry, Hawkeye.

"Christ knows. I'm not a philosopher." Hawkeye shakes his head, sighing. "But I do know it's a different world. I, uh... it's kind of the opposite, as far as I'm concerned. Magic and monsters and crap like that. Definitely not something you'd get where I'm from." He looks the boy up and down, considering him - his outfit, his youth, the interest in his expression. "So you're, what, some kind of wizard?"

It's a genuine question. Once upon a time, he would absolutely have been being sarcastic, but now he's honestly curious. It isn't as though there's any shortage of wizards around here.

Oh no. He actually earns another laugh from him and he's turning his attention towards the sky for a moment or two, it's a weird way to describe him. A wizard. Those sorts of things do not exist, as far as he knows, outside of stories.

"Not at all. I am what we a call a shinobi, what I speak of is called chakra. It is... more of a life force kind of thing that one can tap into. Most of the time they coincide with a particular element or, in rarer cases, usually due to a bloodline ability, one can have multiple that mix to become another thing entirely. Such as ice or lava, that sort of thing."

The real term for it is child soldier or assassin, in his particular case, but that's not something he's too keen on talking about unless pushed. And it's not as if his headband gives away the fact he has no allegiance to any village, of course.

"Oh." Hawkeye sounds thoroughly nonplussed. "So, a wizard."

Magic is magic, okay? It's all weird, it's all inexplicable, and as far as he's concerned, it's all pretty much the same. And what this kid's talking about definitely sounds like magic.

He reaches over again, picking up a couple of Haku's pamphlets and looking them over. "Listen, you can't believe half of these. If I were you, I'd scrap them and get your information somewhere a bit more reliable. We've got vetted versions at the clinic, or you could go and see Egon, he knows more than most of us about monster changes."

Hawkeye, that is not remotely a wizard. "Shinobi, if you would." He's still a ninja and that's his main occupation as far as he's concerned.

Life force and magic are two entirely different things, but he's not about to argue that with him if he's not going to listen to him about it in the first place.

The more important matter is about the pamphlets and these supposed "vetted" versions. "I think I would prefer to hear it from someone's mouth rather than read more about these sorts of things. I... tend to retain information better hearing it, anyway." It's far easier to tell if someone is lying or stretching the truth when talking versus reading text, anyway.

Shinobi, wizard, whatever. He'll call you a shinobi for now, but rest assured that now he knows it's mildly irritating, he's filing wizard away for future use. Just because he has a soft spot for kids, doesn't mean he won't give them a hard time.

For now, though, he just nods. "Makes sense. Well, I'm here if you want to ask anything. Or do you just want the basic run-down?"

How absolutely rude, but at least it'll be something new for him to experience. Since lord knows he never had a chance for this whole friendly ribbing and teasing nonsense, no time for that. All the time here, however.

"Perhaps start with the basic run-down and if I have any questions, I can ask?" Seems the simplest way since he really still doesn't know much outside of the pamphlets. "I assume by the way they were watching me that these pamphlets are more... something I am to become at some point or another instead of a warning?" At least he catches on quick.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE

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DW not sending me notifs, good grief

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