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

[soft_focus]

Oh. Yeah stuff from home normally doesn't work. [She assumes whatever Rey was trying is from her world anyway. That's how it normally goes for new folks.] Not even if you get Mana to help bring it back sometimes! My duel disk's solid vision isn't solid at all...

[Presumably that's some sort of hologram? Well anyway.] Ummm...not really? There was Ray in my world, and then I met another Ray here, that's all.

She's gone now though, so it won't get confusing.

[friendpatine]

[ She's never heard of a "duel disk" before. She's assuming it's some sort of technology. ]

I didn't realize... Does this world have some sort of... nullifying technology? [ She hasn't seen anything remotely technologically advanced since she arrived here, but it's possible she isn't looking for the right things. ]

Oh... Were you two close?

[soft_focus]

Numbing tech..? [She actually has to give that thought- only brief mind, but still.]

Hmm. I think it's just the Fog's magic getting in the way. She makes everyone human when they first get here, so it makes sense...most people here don't really use technology, even in Bavan. Elias definitely does, and I guess the people at the labs and things, but normally there's magic too.

[friendpatine]

[ The only "magic" that Rey knows of is the Force. If there was some other power here that could counteract that... It was scary to think about. ]

"She?" Who is "she?"

[ And if "she" makes everyone human, why is Reira still an alien? ]

[soft_focus]

[oh yeah fog is a normal word]

The Fog!

She calls herself a 'god', but I'm pretty sure gods are supposed to be nice or something. So really she's just a very powerful thing that does stuff.

[One would question if Reira isn't bias, except apparently she doesn't consider her 'god' a 'god' either.

But Rey's clue is absolutely in the phrase 'at first'.]

[friendpatine]

[ Interesting... Rey looks around, as if some sort of sentient fog might be lurking behind a nearby corner. ]

I don't know much about gods. We don't really have those where I come from.

[soft_focus]

Yeah, I didn't know about stuff like that at home either.

[Don't worry Rey, the Fog god won't care if you curse her name. She'll just be amused.] Mostly she's just a jerk though.

[wow]

[friendpatine]

[ That gets Rey to smile. It's not often that she gets to be around children, but she does enjoy their frank way of speaking. ]

A jerk how? You mean by bringing us here and taking away the power we had from home?

[soft_focus]

Yeah!

Also the part where she turns everyone into monsters after doing that. She acts like it's a big present, but she took everything else away first and then didn't even ask! [She kicks at the ground a bit, huffing about that.] So she's a jerk. I got to steal her stuff once.

[It was Super Great.]

[friendpatine]

[ Hang on, what was that last part? ]

Monsters? What monsters?

[soft_focus]

[Reira just points at herself.

She's a monster. Tadaaaaaah.]

...Well I'm one...

[friendpatine]

[ ....Rey doesn't get it. ]

You shouldn't say that about yourself. You're not a monster, you're nice.

[soft_focus]

Eh? Well lots of monsters are nice...

[Reira, tragically, Also doesn't get it. She's even smiling.] But thank you!

Um, anyway monsters look like lots of different things, but I'm a goblin. I think I might be the only goblin?

[She's Correct] But it's okay.

[friendpatine]

[ Rey's only ever heard the term 'goblin' used in the metaphorical sense. She didn't realize that the word was the name of a race of aliens. ]

Have people been calling you a monster just because you're a goblin? They shouldn't do that.

[ Concerned Big Sis Mode™ activate! ]

[soft_focus]

No I'm just a monster... [OBLIVIOUS-CHILDMODE.... ...that's always on, whoops,]

Besides I was different monsters before, I just didn't like being those things anymore- like kelpie! And waldgeist! I used to be those things, but I'm not anymore.

[This is simultaneously more confusing and, probably, more Concerning.]

[friendpatine]

[ Something is starting to click with Rey that she may not be understanding what Reira is trying to say. ]

What do you mean, you were different things before? [ She doesn't know what kelpies or waldgeists are. But from context it sounds like they're different species? Which doesn't make sense. How do you just change species? ]

[soft_focus]

[Magic

No Literally.] I mean I was a different monster before!

I started human, and then I turned into a Waldgeist...but waldgeist are undead, so I couldn't grow up. So I asked Mana, the witch, if she could fix that part, and when we tried it, I ended up a kelpie instead!

And then last year I asked Elias to help make Mana's magic turn me into something that was better for being 'me', and I guess that was a Goblin.

[friendpatine]

[ It's all said so manner of factly. As though it's supposed to make logical sense.

Of course, it doesn't. Not to Rey. ]

What do you mean, "undead?"

[ She shakes her head, not understanding. ]

Sorry... I'm asking so many questions. But all of this is new to me.

[soft_focus]

That's okay! I'm pretty sure monsters don't normally exist anywhere else? [So, it makes sense to not know.] Um...

Undead is like...Sort of dead, but not really?

Like, you're technically dead, because there's no heartbeat and stuff, but you're still able to move and talk and do things. But you don't grow old, and it's really hard to kill you.

[HM!]

[friendpatine]

[ She knows about the transference of life essence. About things being almost dead, brought back to life through the Force. She's read the ancient Jedi texts about this sort of thing, but the whole no heartbeat thing sounds more like Dark side territory. ]

I... see... And you were undead? But now you're... not.

[soft_focus]

Yup!

[h o w] So I was able to grow up!

...I'm still doing that, [she adds after a minute.] But the important part is that I'm not 7 now. [She can do Important Things like use the stove and walk to Bavan on her own now!

...which she did anyway, just without permission.] ...Dying is weird here too, for monsters, so it's probably gonna be confusing for a while....

[friendpatine]

[ Rey still doesn't get it. But at least now she knows there's something she's not getting. She'll have to ask an adult, later. ]

Well, that's good. Everyone should get the chance to grow up.

How long have you been here?

[soft_focus]

[Asking an adult is definitely a good idea.]

Four years! [wait- she pauses, before correcting-] ...It's almost five though, because I'll be 12 in a few months. I picked my birthday just before it was a year after coming here, so it's easy to count!

[Does this imply she had no birthday before?? Yes. She'd probably just as frankly note that to be the case if asked.]

[friendpatine]

[ Good, because guess what? ]

You picked your birthday?

[ Rey's not judging. She doesn't exactly remember her birthday either. It was never something that Unkar Plutt deemed worthy of celebrating. ]

[soft_focus]

[Heck yeah someone can finally relate-]

Yeah!

I never had one, but people were talking about what birthdays are in their worlds I guess, and how you're supposed to use it to tell when you're older?

So I picked a day I liked and now it's my birthday.