JANUARY/FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE

[ryslighelpers]

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.

Comments

[friendpatine]

[ No space-age technology? Such a thing is unheard of to Rey. Her galaxy has been traveling the stars for thousands of years. ]

I don't understand. New people get to this planet somehow. If it isn't by ship, then how is it?

And no... Why?

[justbeingknife]

It's not by ship. Or if it is, someone's doing a great job of coverin' their tracks. No one really remembers how they got here from wherever they were.

But given what's happened to some of the new arrivals, I think they get sucked into this place from some kinda hole in the universe -- compliments of the Fog God.

[ He put up his palm. ]

Sounds pretty science fictiony, I know. But since the first thing ya did was ask where the nearest ship was, maybe you're more used to hearin' that kinda thing than most.

[friendpatine]

[ Rey looks away, thinking. ] ...That would explain why I couldn't find the TIE.

[ She doesn't understand how she could have just been "sucked" onto a different planet, without a ship or any means of travel. That doesn't sound possible, even with the Force.

Speaking of the Force, she can't feel that either.

But one thing at a time. ]

Who's the "Fog God?" Some sort of local warlord?

hey just double checking, you're cool with fourth walling?

[justbeingknife]

Somethin' like that, except she prefers 'god'. You know. Big powers, big ego?

[ He set down his box and opened the lid. ]

What's a TIE?

Go for it!

[friendpatine]

I don't really know of any gods.

[ Some local cultures in the Outer Rim might worship powerful beings as gods, but religions aren't really theistic in her galaxy. ]

It's a type of starfighter. I had been flying one, before I washed ashore here.

[ She steps forward, peering down into his open box. ] What are you doing?

[justbeingknife]

You were flyin' a TIE fighter?

[ Excuse him while he regarded Rey with a mixture of disbelief and suspicion, the box temporarily forgotten. ]

You're pullin' my leg.

[friendpatine]

[ Rey bristles, assuming the wrong thing right off the bat. ]

I'm not with the First Order, if that's what you're worried about.

...I stole it.

[justbeingknife]

The First Order? What's that? I didn't watch the sequels...

[ It seemed reasonable that someone might steal a TIE fighter in a Star Wars movie, though. Some of those security measures had been pretty convenient. ]

[friendpatine]

[ It's too bad he didn't watch the sequels, because if he wants to see TIE fighters being stolen, that's really where to look. ]

What? What sequels? What are you talking about?

[justbeingknife]

[ Wow, either she was like SUPER COMMITTING, or

He held up a hand. ]

Okay, lemme back up a sec. Maybe this's what Elsa was talking about.

Where I'm from, we got a bunch of stories floatin' around, and everyone thinks they ain't true. Like about werewolves and vampires and all that. They're just legends. When I came here, it turned out a bunch of 'em were true. 'fact, I am one.

[ As proven by the wolf ears and fur, tbh. ]

I've heard about TIE fighters and lightsabers, but not as real things. They're stories.

[friendpatine]

[ Wolves exist in Rey's galaxy. She's never seen one, but she's read about them. Not werewolves, mind you, just literal (giant) wolves. ]

You've... heard legends about things that are real to me?

[ It makes a certain sort of sense. Rey used to think the Force was just a legend. ]

[justbeingknife]

Sounds like it.

[ Which made this a little weirder than his usual first meetings, but hey. ]

Nuts, huh? But there's plenty about this place that's weird as hell, so go figure. Y'know, ya don't seem all that taken back by the idea...?

[friendpatine]

[ Rey shrugs. ]

I know a little bit about legends becoming real. I try to keep an open mind.

[ She points back down at the tackle box. ]

You still haven't told me what that is.

[justbeingknife]

Oh, yeah. This here's for fishing tackle. I got hooks, lures, line, you name it. Kinda more equipment than I'm used to, but I figure I can just donate any extras to an unsuspectin' fellow angler.

[ Maybe one of those local kids looking bored out by the shore, even. It was tough to catch fish when you weren't particularly great at digging up bait. ]

Thought I'd take a break before someone sets the city on fire again.

[friendpatine]

[ Rey looks at the assorted fishing tackle with curiosity and wonder. ]

I've never seen so much... equipment, just to catch a fish.

[ Granted the only fishing she's ever seen was Luke with his spear fishing. ]

Do... people set the city on fire a lot?

[justbeingknife]

Uh... more than you'd think, actually. It's kind of a problem.

[ He fished a little wooden minnow out of one of the compartments and offered it to her. It had a beady little eye painted on one side of its 'head'. ]

Want one? I dunno how much ya like this kinda thing, but you could always use it as a charm. Or to hold your keys.

...whenever ya get some of those.

[friendpatine]

[ She takes it reverently in her hands, turning it over and tracing the patterns painted on the wood with her finger. ]

I... Thank you.

[ She's so touched, she almost misses the next thing he says. ]

Wh--why would I have keys? I'm not staying.

[justbeingknife]

Don't tell me -- spaceships don't have keys.

[ To be fair, on the TV they mostly seemed to involve levers and buttons. Maybe an exploding panel or two, set to spew sparks everywhere when structural integrity was compromised. ]

Eh. It's still cute, and that's somethin'. Those joints're pretty clever, aren't they? When ya hang 'em on a line, they move back and forth.

[friendpatine]

N-no...?

[ Why do you think they're so easy to steal? Also, pretty sure even houses in her galaxy don't have keys either. Nobody locks anything with keys. It's anarchy. ]

Like a real fish! [ She wiggles it back and forth, careful of the hook. ] It is cute. Thank you, again.

[justbeingknife]

You're real welcome.

[ A small smile, from a man who'd spent a number of years doing precious little of that. ]

Anyway, if you're going to take the bus back to Bavan, where the Starblaster is? It won't be here till noon. So ya still got some time on your hands.

[friendpatine]

[ Rey looks away from the water, towards the direction of where town must be. She could go see for herself... But this man seems to know the area pretty well. Maybe she'd be better off staying by his side until the "bus" (whatever that is) comes.

She sits down on the sand next to him, folding her legs in front of her. ]

So, what is this place? I still don't understand how I got here.

[justbeingknife]

Y'know, I've been here for about a year, and I still don't know exactly how it all works myself.

[ He fixed the line, drew back the rod, and sent both hook and line sailing overhead, into the water. The bright red-and-white of the bobber settled cheerily on the surface of the ocean. ]

So here's what they told me. This place, it's called Ryslig, and something called the Fog God drags us here from other worlds to be her children. Only her idea of a happy little family is turning her 'children' into monsters.

[friendpatine]

[ It's peaceful, to watch the line soar out through the air and plonk down into the water. Almost makes Rey forget her shock and fear to have awoken somewhere strange, with no Force, no lightsaber, no ship to get off-world. ]

That sounds... horrible. [ She's never dealt with anyone calling themselves a god before. ]

Monsters? What kind of monsters?

[ Because obviously this guy is some sort of sentient species like the Shistavanen. Not an actual monster or anything. ]

[justbeingknife]

Like me. Werewolves and kelpies and all that.

[ He could really only assume she thought this was normal for him, though the idea of a species of wolfdudes wasn't really at the top of Majima's mind. ]

When I first got here, I didn't have any fur. But you're right about one thing: it is pretty goddamn awful. I don't mind the ears and claws; hell, I barely notice 'em these days.

But I don't like livin' under someone else's thumb, and I sure as hell ain't eatin' any people.

[friendpatine]

[ This is strange, but there's one element that bothers Rey above all. ]

I don't think there's any reason to consider someone a monster just because they're not human.

[ But wait. Give her a second... ]

...What was that about eating people?