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

[mrbigguy]

The clerk isn't too keen on being argued with by two people now, so they just throw up their hands and grumble something about monsters just doing whatever they want. The man in the brown jacket, meanwhile, recognizes Juno's voice immediately.

"That is not Buddy," he automatically corrects as he turns toward the familiar. He knows how things work in Ryslig by now, to an extent. He still fails to expect the sight that greets him.

"And you are a raccoon."

It's just... said very simply. Matter of fact. Just a casual observation here.

[junosteel]

"Of course they're not Buddy, I was just calling them buddy--"

He stops, staring at the man standing before him. It hadn't clicked until the man had said "Buddy". Frankly, Juno doesn't know how he could've forgotten about him until now. The last time he saw the big guy, Juno was significantly dwarfed by his sheer presence and height. Now that Juno stands more or less at eye level with the man, the effect is diminished, but the guy's sheer presence is still enough to make him feel minuscule next to him.

It takes a few moments for Juno to come up with enough words to sputter out a coherent sentence.

"Yeah, uh, I know I'm a raccoon--why the hell are you here?"

[mrbigguy]

The observations were more for the man's own benefit than for anyone else. It is likely Juno has been here a while, given what little the man knows about the Peninsula so far, with its temporal oddities and particular quirk of transformation in its foreigners. Juno has always been one to betray his emotions rather explosively, but the man in the brown jacket may not have expected him to mirror their first encounter over their latest. Immediately defensive. It's... troubling.

"I am here for the same reason you are. To buy groceries." And also to eventually become a monster for whatever reason, semantic debate on what constitutes a monster notwithstanding.

The man pauses a moment to reassess where he stands with the smaller-than-average-sized apple in his hand, then decides he probably should just pocket it for now.

[junosteel]

As far as Juno is aware, the man in the brown jacket's appearance means that he hasn't undergone any transformations yet. A new arrival, most likely. The thing is figuring out where the guy came from--and, more importantly, when. Juno had been in this place for much longer than he could have ever anticipated, and past encounters have taught him that time is a nebulous concept when it comes to the Fog.

"That's not what I meant," he says, slightly frustrated. He should've known better than to ask the big guy vague questions like that. "You know what? Never mind. How long have you been here?"

Anticipation creeps into Juno's voice. It's hard to get a good read on this guy, and for a moment, Juno considers the possibility that this man doesn't recognize him. But he must--he mentioned Buddy, after all, so that must mean something.

[mrbigguy]

Juno could be irritable for any number of reasons, in the man's experience. The transformation aspect of their presence here probably isn't any more pleasant for him as it is for the man himself, knowing it's most likely in his imminent future. And, of course, the fact that they're expected to eat the humans they once were as their only source of viable food.

It's... not something the man thinks he or Juno would be able to handle gracefully. It may be even harder to have to go through it without anyone he knew from before to ground him.

"I have been in Bavan for two days. I have been on this planet for six." The straightforward response. There's a pause, the man taking in Juno's new appearance. Odd, trying to find nonverbal cues from a human in something distinctly not. At least not anymore.

"Juno. You seem agitated. Would you prefer somewhere less public?"

It's one thing, of course, to talk openly somewhere neither of them plan to return. For the time being, they are here, with no current option to leave on the horizon. People may know Juno's... admittedly distinctive face here.