graveyardsmash | JANUARY/FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE

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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.

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That earns Steve a long and carefully neutral stare. He isn’t sure whether to be relieved, amused, or horrified. So how about a mixture of all three?

Clearly anyone from his galaxy would know Coruscant. Yet he knows what a Jedi is? The Jedi are based on Coruscant after all. Something isn’t adding up here. Though he has to resist the urge to snort at the “space knights” bit. They are knights but not solely devoted to space! Sounds like this man has second-hand knowledge.

“I... see.”

He isn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. So he will give it a moment. Let’s focus on the pamphlets for a bit.

However, as Steve goes on, he is now full on horrified and it shows on his face.

“You speak so easily of... well... cannibalism.” He sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t think I can do this. It goes against everything I’ve ever known.”

"I'm afraid you haven't got a choice," he replies softly, resisting the urge to place a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. "This place is going to change you, like it or not. If you're truly fortunate, you won't begin to crave human flesh for several months. Not all of us are so lucky," Steve's hunger came with the first round of changes, when his body was ill equipped to go hunting.

"It's much easier to speak about it than it is to do it, especially the first time. With any luck, you'll have gained yourself experienced friends by then, who can help you cope with it when it comes," Steve offers a sad smile.

“I’ve had my fill of change even before I came here. Though you are right, I haven’t had any choices either.”

At least not any that would end well.

Without the comfort of the Force he could feel himself more easily being swayed by raw emotion, and he had to do everything to keep from embarrassing himself in front of this man he had only just met. Still he couldn’t keep that sorrowful tone from his voice.

It felt like the universe hated him and the Force had abandoned him.

Breathing in deeply, he let it out again. He very much wanted to say he didn’t want to cope with it, but that was a childish way of thinking. He knows it’s inevitable and he needs to come to terms. He is thankful though for this man’s clear kindness.

“Perhaps so,” he relents finally after a moment. “This is as good a place to start as any. My name is Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

The name perks Steve right up. "You are a Jedi!" he laughs, his canines conspicuously missing and his tongue forked to sharp points. "My apologies, we all seem to come from unrelated worlds. I guess some of them tell stories about the others -- we had a movie about you and a young boy," he explains.

He offers a mittened hand for a shake. "I'm Steve Rogers, formerly known as Captain America."

It seems like his cover is blown? Though he certainly looks confused at being recognized and Steve’s explanation.

“A movie? You mean like a holodrama?”

He can at least be thankful that the reaction is positive and that this man doesn’t want to kill him.

Taking the offered hand, he gave it a slow but cordial shake.

“It’s a pleasure Mr. Rogers, though I’m afraid I don’t recognize you. I’ve never heard of a Captain of an America.”

Whatever that is.

He nods in agreement, still grinning from ear to ear. "A holodrama is probably the closest thing you have to a movie, yeah. America is a country. A... sub-division of a planet. It was more of an honorary title than anything," he admits.

And then he abruptly shifts gears, back to the pamphlets, reaching over to tap the one on top. "What's next on the list?"

He knows what a country is Steve, gosh. Even so, he nods in understanding.

"What planet is this America a part of?"

Obi-Wan is admittedly a bit weirded out by the idea that there's supposedly a movie with him in it and isn't sure what to make of that. So he leaves it for now as the topic shifts back to the pamphlets. With a sigh he sets the one he had been reading aside before picking up the one titled "The Change and You." There are ones of similar topics below it.

"Honestly I've been putting these off till last. Bodily changes are not something I'm looking forward to either."

He'd rather provide too much information than not enough. He can't remember if Star Wars had countries or not, honestly.

"Earth," Steve replies. "Though I've heard it called Midgard, too," by Asgardians only. Even so, he didn't expect Obi-Wan to be familiar with it.

"They're unpleasant, to be certain, but the changes were, in my experience, easier to deal with once I knew the general direction things were going in," he replies with an apologetic smile. "My first round left me barely able to get about. I traded in my legs for this tail, but it was only five feet long," he chuckles. "I couldn't really use it to hold myself up or to move very well."

“Can’t say I’ve heard of either,” Obi-Wan says, confirming Steve’s guess.

“I admit, not knowing what it... what I could be, is a bit unnerving.”

The idea of becoming a demon or some other being of darkness quietly terrified him. Though really, any of them bothered him, particularly the unavoidable fact that he would have to take human life to sustain himself. It was a terrible thing, and not being able to make the choice or stop himself, was also frightening.

Even so, the Jedi continued to keep his composure as much as humanly possible. He was a Jedi and, Force or not, he would stay a Jedi for as long as he was able.

“That does sound rather inconvenient. How were you able to manage?”

"I was in denial until the changes started," he admits. "Where I came from, I'd received a special treatment that had protected me from most forms of illness, and I thought it might protect me from this, too," he sighs. Obviously he'd had no such luck.

He smiles lopsidedly. "I was able to borrow a wheelchair from the Bavan clinic. The doctor's a good man, but better if you've no sense of smell," he chuckles at his own joke. "He's a lich and the smell can be a bit much sometimes, but he's a good sport about it.."

The bit about the doctor brings a small smile to Obi-Wan’s face. It was good to see that despite everything here, that there are those willing to help each other. Steve himself as well as this lich doctor he mentioned. It gave him a bit of hope that he wouldn’t lose himself completely to whatever changes he went through.

“Are all the changes so dramatic?”

Having to relearn how to get around is no small ordeal after all. Though really it was the mental changes that concerned him most. The idea of becoming a demon or some other dark being was a bit terrifying to him.

Steve considers the question, spends a moment considering all the strange people he's met since arriving. "It does seem that way," he confirms. "Some are more intense than others. I've met a schoolteacher who looks like he's made of green gelatin," or snot, but saying it that way would be rude. "Keeping any human skin at all seems like a blessing to me," he chuckles. "At least, assuming I'm not uniquely unfortunate and get covered head to toe in scales. None of the other naga are, but none of them had their tail grow in as slowly as mine has."

The fact that Steve spoke of it all as if it was an every day thing bothered him as Obi-Wan listened. Thing is it was an everyday thing, at least in this world. Would be one day speak of it so easily to another new arrival? Probably. He could practically see his future self in Steve, and that both disturbed and reassured him at the same time.

But he was a Jedi, or at least he had been brought up as one. He needed to adapt and accept the will of the Force, this situation he had been placed in. Breathing out a sigh, he nodded.

“When I was told I needed to disappear, I don’t thing any of us had this in mind,” he half muttered to himself.

Though it was pretty certain that no one would recognize after he went through this change, if anyone could ever find him here at all.

Steve chuckles warmly, nodding in agreement. "In a few month's time, even if someone found you they'd have a hard time recognizing you, I'm afraid. And it's one of the least offensive things this place will do to you, I'm afraid," he smiles apologetically. "I've only been here a short while, myself," he looks down at his tail, wiggling the tip of it again, as if it had a rattle.

"No one will blame you for believing yourself immune until the changes set in. Denial is probably the most common reaction to it all."

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE

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