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

"As far as I know, there's no going home." He shrugs. "This guy told me that, even if you disappear from here, you just end up in the sky or something? Which sounds pretty silly to me, but there's a lot that's silly and arbitrary about this place."

Or maybe he just thinks that because being here without the Boss and being dead is just about the same thing to him. Oh well.

"What's so important that your friends' lives are depending on it, anyway?"

There was no going home? That was honestly disheartening, and a bit terrifying, though he did his best to hide that reaction. "I mean... I'm not saying they will die without me, but... we already were at the ends of our abilities... facing off against someone with a terrifying power, who uses it freely to harm people as he wishes." He said. It had become more personal than taking over the gang, it had become finding revenge for his friends, and defending the people who couldn't, against that man... the Boss.

It's not very obvious - especially compared to some of the body language he often shows - but Doppio's brow furrows for just a moment.

Rome alone didn't mean anything. It was a big city, frequented by hundreds of tourists every day. But some kind of face-off in Rome, against someone very powerful? That still didn't necessarily point to anything, but... he can't help thinking it's more than a simple coincidence.

But when Doppio speaks up, his tone is airy and concerned.

"Wow, that sounds pretty serious... No wonder you're so worried. What kind of power? What happened?"

He was a little disoriented from waking, and he was more than a little upset at being here, but the questions seemed... almost too interested, especially about something in a place that couldn't be returned to.

"It's... nothing that could be believed without experiencing it." he says, offering a weak smile, watching the other with keen eyes. "A lot of things have happened... but... if I'm stuck here... I suppose they don't really matter." he adds, his jaw tightening as he prays to whatever force controlled fate that the others succeeded without him. "I will just have to have faith they can do it, I was not the only one with a strong resolve among us."

That... doesn't answer his questions at all. Was he too obvious? Doppio tries to hide his displeasure, but his expression still darkens, if only for a moment.

... Still, maybe it is nothing. It might not even be a stand thing in the first place - after all, from what he understands, some of the people who end up in Ryslig come from pretty outrageous places.

"Well... I hope so! And maybe you'll be able to go back, who knows? I haven't been here for that long, myself, so maybe someone's right on the edge of a breakthrough and I just haven't heard about it!"

"What about you? What had you in Rome?" He asks, sounding completely curious about the other, and now that he's settling down from his initial panic he seems genuinely friendly.

He nods to the idea of the other not knowing if someone might be close to a breakthrough. "It would be nice if that was the case, even if it would make my suddenly being here... more of a waste of time than anything." He takes a moment to fuss with his hair as he speaks, trying to get the curls back into their places, and almost succeeding, but he will need hair product to keep them there at this rate.

"Uh... Just work. I was supposed to keep an eye on..." Careful. No matter who he's really talking to, he can't say too much. "Some coworkers my boss thought might fly off the handle."

And then it turned out those "coworkers" had already been defeated by the time he found them, and everything spiraled out of control in record time, and then he died (although whatever happened between him finding the traitors' informant and him getting shot was strangely fuzzy). But at least victory was guaranteed.

"Well... I guess that stuff just happens sometimes. You're in the middle of something really important, but then you have to stop and deal with something else before you can get back to business..."

... Kind of like when Secco decided to grab him, huh.

"They must not be very good coworkers, if you needed to watch them." He offers, genuinely, nodding a bit in some kind of understanding.

"But still, you must be really important back there, to be trusted with something like that from your boss." He adds, sounding impressed and appreciative. "Do you do anything like your old work here?"

Now that makes him beam like nothing else to this point. "Yes! There wasn't anybody he trusted more than me!"

... And then he deflates, because, well... he misses the Boss. Very badly.

"I don't really do a lot here, though. I'm just helping out at Dr. Hawkeye's clinic. You know, cleaning up the place, bringing him coffee..."

Giorno nods before giving a sympathetic smile and reaching out to pat the others shoulder. "It must be hard to be here, and away from the people you know." he offers, kind and understanding.

"Well, does that make you happy? Because that is really the most important thing." he offers. He had a hard time seeing anyone who worked for the Boss to be the kind to also work at a clinic... maybe he was just being jumpy, after everything he'd been through in the last little while. How many days had they all spent on edge watching for attack from any side? If not from the Boss and his men then before that from the traitors to the organization.

Doppio tenses up a little at the shoulder pat, but it's not personal. Just not a fan of people intruding on his personal space very much.

"Well, it's better than not having a job... A-And I should be grateful that anybody hired me at all, really." He scratches the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm not great at anything in particular."

He brings his hand back, not showing any kind of upset at the fact that his touch wasn't clearly appreciated, just showing he read the other's body language and was stopping what he'd done.

"You must have been great at one thing, at least, to be trusted like you were before arriving here. Maybe it's just not something that's been noticed so well here." He offers, before a bit of hair falls into his face and he reaches up with a slight huff to fix it, fussing it into it's curl shape for a moment.

Something about the way the curls fall on Giorno's face makes him squint for just a moment - but he still can't put a finger on it. All it does is distract him from the conversation for just a little too long.

"Oh. Uh, I mean..."

Why did the Boss trust him so much? Honestly, he was never really sure. Is it just that he's always been good at keeping secrets? It's not like he ever had his own stand; if the Boss wanted someone powerful at his side, there were far better choices than Doppio.

"... I'm pretty alright at following orders. Most of the time, anyway."

"Modesty is good, but don't sell yourself short." Giorno says, smiling a bit. "I mean, I'd think if you were sent to Rome to oversee others... your boss must trust your judgement, and trust that you will act appropriately when needed. So that says you are smart and work well on the fly, as it goes." He offers.

"... Yeah! You're right about that."

And like that, he's smiling in return. He may not understand the Boss's judgement, but he still trusts it.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE

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