Welcome to Ryslig's test drive meme! If you're considering apping here, this is where you can try your characters out in the game's setting. A few things to note:
Test drive meme threads can be used for your roleplay sample!
Sample scenarios:
SCENARIO ONE: You've just been released from the hospital in Vandare and no one really seems to know what to do with you. The locals offer polite advice but don't seem to want to spend a lot of time with you. You and the other new arrivals stick out like sore thumbs, so perhaps one will spot you wandering about town.
SCENARIO TWO: You've become hopelessly lost in Lager Woods. Paths don't seem to lead where you remember them leading, and you feel as if you're going around in circles. Childlike giggling can be heard from no direction in particular. Suddenly, you stumble upon another character, who seems to be just as lost as you! Perhaps you can find a way out together.
SCENARIO THREE: 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? NOTE: Feel free to pick any monster type for this prompt, but note that you may not get the same one in game.
The docks seem to be a common point of gathering, and it's not hard to see why.
When you're told that you came from the sea, it stands to reason that you'd wonder if you could get back to where you were supposed to be by returning to it.
Which is why plenty of people, a dozen or more, with damp hair and strange wounds, are milling around the docks with vacant, shellshocked stares, drifting as thought senile and confused from one end of the pier to another.
It's a lot to take in.
One is just sitting, though-- crouched on a barrel with her scabby knees tugged to her chest as she stares intently at the horizon. ... Or, well, what little of the horizon can even be made out through the fog.
"... I wasn't even anywhere NEAR an ocean."
This is muttered as Marco passes, and it's not entirely clear if she's talking to him or just herself.
That's essentially Marco's reasoning - that, and wanting to ask the men on the boats if they'd seen anything when they pulled anyone up. His gear, what left them in the water, any piece of information. It hasn't turned up anything.
Plus, it's where he told Xion to meet him and anyone else they found. So he's also looking vaguely for her.
Heather's statement makes Marco pause, though, stopping a half foot past her. He looks out onto the water too, and lets out a small sigh.
"Neither was I. I'd never even seen one before today, either, which is what makes it quite the feat."
Marco shifts to face her a little more fully, letting a small smile crawl onto his face.
"Yeah, I guess you could call it that," he says. "I'd call it pretty, but I have to admit I'm not really enamored of it right now," he admits, and finally, sits down next to her. Sorry, Heather, you're going to have a buddy for a while.
That's okay, she... doesn't really mind the conversation so much.
Even if perhaps her ego is a little reluctant to admit that being alone makes the thoughts in her head grow dark and loud.
"Maine. Portland area."
She could say Silent Hill, of course. She wouldn't be lying. But after everything that had just happened to her (no matter how far away it might now seem), the thought of acknowledging those roots makes her want to bite straight through her tongue. No, she spent her childhood years on the windy streets of good ol' Portland so that's where she's from as far as she's concerned.
Marco's got it on good authority he's relatively good company - although that may not hold against someone who's not a mildly traumatized child soldier. Still, he listens to what little she says with an attentive ear.
"Maine? Never heard of it... I'm from Jinae, south of Wall Rose." But he knows they're both from different places, it's to be expected at this point. He's hardly ever found someone from his home here so far.
"What's it like there?" He can reasonably be sure she doesn't know how she got here, given her muttering. So he asks something else instead.
Eh, mildly traumatized child soldier, mildly traumatized child... whatever the hell you could call Heather. Escaped messiah? Whatever. Trauma was involved either way.
That said, she was giving him a weird look.
He hadn't heard of Maine?
"It's nice, I guess. Lots of trees. Also, lobster. Right next to Canada. Always wanted to travel but never got to. ... But Wall Rose? Never heard of that. Where is it, Europe?"
He hasn't heard of Maine. Or Canada. Pity him, Heather.
"Lobster?" His confusion should be obvious. Crustaceans aren't a thing where he's from - being as it's all inland lakes and rivers, if you can really call them that.
"I... don't really know where it is." He gives a small shrug. There's no name for where they're from aside from maybe "earth". "It's the second wall of three - Sina, Rose, and Maria. Though I guess since Maria has a hole in it it's not really a good wall anymore."
He looks over at her, and then laughs sadly. "I don't think where I'm from is the same as where you're from."
She sits all the way up, now staring at him like he'd just told her the sky was yellow.
"It's like-- ... a red thing with a shell, and you eat it. And it's good."
He DID say that he'd never seen the ocean before... but even landlocked people knew what a lobster was! What kind of cruel existence did this guy come from.
"I guess we must not be. When you say 'wall', I'm guessing you're not talkin' about... like... a garden wall or something."
Something more like the Great Wall of China by the way he refers to it.
He shakes his head in confirmation. No, he doesn't know what a lobster is! A 'red thing with a shell' brings to mind some pretty strange images, too, for starters. But if it's food - maybe they have it here!
She mentions garden walls, and he laughs, shaking his head. "No, much bigger than that. Fifty meters tall where they're biggest, built of stone. They have to be that big, to keep out the Titans." And even that wasn't enough.
But judging by the way her brows furrow at the word 'Titans', that's where he lost her. She squints at him for a second before asking for clarification, as though trying to figure out if he's just messing with her.
"... What, you guys are trying to keep out the football team? That's cold, man."
They weren't supposed to be remembered for this.
never apologize. this thread is going to turn into "how confused can our characters make each other"
There's a prolonged silence that's punctured only by the sounds of the ocean lapping at the pier.
It's like the world's most awkward staring contest, where instead of waiting for the other person to blink, it's waiting for them to 'fess up to their bullshit.
But when no cameraman pops out to inform her that she's on Candid Camera, Heather finally breaks.
"Okay. You're either from a totally different planet than me, or-- ... I don't know, Australia or something."
Giant monstrosities that devoured people alive are sort of par for the course there, right? ... But then, Heather's pretty sure Australians at least know what football is.
He just stares back at her, waiting for her to explain. Seriously, what's a football team? For that matter, what's Australia? What are lobsters? Who was phone?
When she says he might be from a different planet, he can't help but finally laugh a little.
"I... don't know what Australia is, either. So I guess it must be the first one?"
omg. "... Well, this is fun!" "I want my money back."
At first glance it seems impossible, but... well, under the circumstances, it really isn't too far out of the realm of possibility. Because HELL, it's not like she's ever heard of this island. Not that she's the most geographically-inclined person around, but this place doesn't even seem modern. Even third-world countries have phones somewhere and she hasn't seen a single one.
"So... wow. Yeah. Uh. Giant monstrosities? Not so common where I come from."
There's another pause, before she adds slowly:
"... I mean... not the kind that a wall could keep out, anyway."
Marco wouldn't be able to tell you if this was or wasn't his world - considering he'd never ventured beyond those aforementioned walls. Not unless he wanted to become a tasty Titan snack.
The village is more familiar to him than her phone would be, at least - but still not exactly the same.
When she says giant monstrosities aren't common, and then amends that, his expression goes a little concerned.
"The walls worked fine.. up until a Colossal-type Titan showed up and knocked some of it down." Twice. The nerve of the bastard.
"But I can't imagine a world where there are monsters that can't be kept out by walls..."
Heather's head returns to its previous position, lying on her arms. Turning the world on its side somehow seems appropriate for this conversation, which is more surreal than she'd really prepared herself for.
"Sounds like it was a colossal dick, then."
... A simplistic outlook, but she's not exactly wrong.
Still a somewhat dark note enters her voice when she speaks again.
"I'd pay to see the wall that could keep the monsters in my world away."
She's not wrong. When she says it was a colossal dick, he can't help the little laugh, leaning forward with his hands on his knees, looking out at the water.
"Yeah, you're not wrong. That's putting it lightly, actually."
Thousands of people died, and it's not like they needed to lose everyone. She speaks again, her tone dark, and Marco's struck by an urge to place a hand on her shoulder. He doesn't know her, though, and doesn't want to make it worse - so he refrains.
"What is it like in your world, aside from lobsters and football? If you don't mind me asking."
If she does, he'll find another topic. He's just endlessly curious.
5 AM is the best time to draw dumb subject-line jokes
Even without the changes that are destined to take hold of them, there's already a glint in Heather's eye that gives the impression she just might be the type to snap at the fingers of anyone bold enough to touch her without permission.
"It's... normal. Mostly. People go about their lives. Get up, go to work, go to sleep. Rinse, repeat. Till just a couple days ago, it was that way for me too. School and stuff."
She pauses, sucking her lips inward briefly. She's not quite looking at Marco-- her eyes had turned back out towards the sea again.
"... The monsters... most people don't know they exist."
Marco knows that look. Marco's trained with people who have that look, and that's why he knows he made the right decision.
The world she describes sounds similar, but not quite. School? He's heard of those, been to one when he was younger, but usually it's for people who want higher education. For him, it was something he went to as a child, and then he was taught by his mother when he was older. She goes every day? She must be very well-off.
As well as hidden monsters. Everyone knows about the Titans back home, and he can't help leaning forward a little curiously, looking out at the water.
Well-off? Well, she'd never been poor, at least. That much was a blessing. Harry Mason had been a frugal, money-smart man who knew how to take a small amount and stretch it. Something that had come in handy with all the moving-around they did-- which Heather knew hadn't been great for his deadlines.
A sigh drifts out of Heather's lungs.
"It's... hard to explain."
As much as she's pretty sure she's got it all sorted out in her head at this point... the shock of seeing that first creature with no warning or understanding of what was going on is still fresh in her mind. It had seemed crazy then, and she's positive it would seem crazy to a stranger, too.
Even a stranger who apparently deals with giant monsters trying to bust into his backyard all the time.
"They're just not... there for most people. Like gum under a desk. You don't KNOW it's there unless you look for it, or-- touch it by accident and get it all over your fingers."
Or in her case, if you were bonded by destiny to the gum and a bunch of people wanted you to become the Gum Overlord and usher in a new era of sticky utopia that lost its flavor after you'd chewed it for a few hours.
"And then it's too late, it's stuck to you and you feel all gross for the rest of the day."
Marco doesn't really know anything about gum under a desk - another luxury that wasn't commonly available. He does, however, know what it's like to feel gross all over after watching something horrific. Titan attacks, watching a trainee break their neck because of badly-maintained gear and being unable to do anything about it.
So while he doesn't quite get the context of what she means by not there, he does exhale sharply after a moment.
"I know what that last part is like. I don't know what kind of monsters would only be visible to some people, though. Maybe like... ghouls?"
Marco Bott is a superstitious person, and the concept of a ghoul is something he's familiar with it. They believe that kind of thing in Jinae. If she exists around things that are anything like that, then she's definitely brave.
"Either way, it sounds terrifying. If you ask for help but they can't see it..."
Ghouls is closer, she supposes-- certainly closer than giant man-eating dudes who roam the countryside, anyway. But still not quite there. She met a ghost once. The experience had been singularly unpleasant, but it still hadn't quite been the same as going toe-to-toe with the deformed monstrosities that crawled though the Otherworld.
"Sort of. It's more like..."
After a second of wracking her brain, she unwittingly comes up with a comparison that Marco might be a little more equipped to understand.
"You know when you're walking through a field or... you know, courtyard or whatever? And you're like 'Gosh, this sure is pretty nice!' But then you lift up a log or tile and underneath it, there's a bunch of worms and centipedes? It's like that. Except instead of them being under a log, it's like they're under-- under a layer of reality. And once that layer is lifted up for you... well, you're not... you're not seeing the same things as everybody else, that's for sure."
You're not seeing everyone else, either.
Possibly the scariest thing about the Otherworld was how everyone else seemed to have vanished in an instant.
Heather's pretty sure at this point that they hadn't disappeared for real-- if anything, it's that she disappeared. Disappeared to someplace close enough to touch and yet still far enough away that most people didn't even have an inkling of the horrors that lay just under the surface of what they were perceiving.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rysligmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
graveyardsmash2014-07-04 09:45 pm
no subject
When you're told that you came from the sea, it stands to reason that you'd wonder if you could get back to where you were supposed to be by returning to it.
Which is why plenty of people, a dozen or more, with damp hair and strange wounds, are milling around the docks with vacant, shellshocked stares, drifting as thought senile and confused from one end of the pier to another.
It's a lot to take in.
One is just sitting, though-- crouched on a barrel with her scabby knees tugged to her chest as she stares intently at the horizon. ... Or, well, what little of the horizon can even be made out through the fog.
"... I wasn't even anywhere NEAR an ocean."
This is muttered as Marco passes, and it's not entirely clear if she's talking to him or just herself.
no subject
Plus, it's where he told Xion to meet him and anyone else they found. So he's also looking vaguely for her.
Heather's statement makes Marco pause, though, stopping a half foot past her. He looks out onto the water too, and lets out a small sigh.
"Neither was I. I'd never even seen one before today, either, which is what makes it quite the feat."
no subject
"Really? Never? Well. Talk about one hell of an introduction to it."
no subject
"Yeah, I guess you could call it that," he says. "I'd call it pretty, but I have to admit I'm not really enamored of it right now," he admits, and finally, sits down next to her. Sorry, Heather, you're going to have a buddy for a while.
"Where were you from, before?"
no subject
Even if perhaps her ego is a little reluctant to admit that being alone makes the thoughts in her head grow dark and loud.
"Maine. Portland area."
She could say Silent Hill, of course. She wouldn't be lying. But after everything that had just happened to her (no matter how far away it might now seem), the thought of acknowledging those roots makes her want to bite straight through her tongue. No, she spent her childhood years on the windy streets of good ol' Portland so that's where she's from as far as she's concerned.
no subject
"Maine? Never heard of it... I'm from Jinae, south of Wall Rose." But he knows they're both from different places, it's to be expected at this point. He's hardly ever found someone from his home here so far.
"What's it like there?" He can reasonably be sure she doesn't know how she got here, given her muttering. So he asks something else instead.
no subject
That said, she was giving him a weird look.
He hadn't heard of Maine?
"It's nice, I guess. Lots of trees. Also, lobster. Right next to Canada. Always wanted to travel but never got to. ... But Wall Rose? Never heard of that. Where is it, Europe?"
no subject
"Lobster?" His confusion should be obvious. Crustaceans aren't a thing where he's from - being as it's all inland lakes and rivers, if you can really call them that.
"I... don't really know where it is." He gives a small shrug. There's no name for where they're from aside from maybe "earth". "It's the second wall of three - Sina, Rose, and Maria. Though I guess since Maria has a hole in it it's not really a good wall anymore."
He looks over at her, and then laughs sadly. "I don't think where I'm from is the same as where you're from."
no subject
She pities him a LOT.
"... You don't know what a lobster is?"
She sits all the way up, now staring at him like he'd just told her the sky was yellow.
"It's like-- ... a red thing with a shell, and you eat it. And it's good."
He DID say that he'd never seen the ocean before... but even landlocked people knew what a lobster was! What kind of cruel existence did this guy come from.
"I guess we must not be. When you say 'wall', I'm guessing you're not talkin' about... like... a garden wall or something."
Something more like the Great Wall of China by the way he refers to it.
no subject
She mentions garden walls, and he laughs, shaking his head. "No, much bigger than that. Fifty meters tall where they're biggest, built of stone. They have to be that big, to keep out the Titans." And even that wasn't enough.
i'm so sorry
Dang.
Those are some big walls.
But judging by the way her brows furrow at the word 'Titans', that's where he lost her. She squints at him for a second before asking for clarification, as though trying to figure out if he's just messing with her.
"... What, you guys are trying to keep out the football team? That's cold, man."
They weren't supposed to be remembered for this.
never apologize. this thread is going to turn into "how confused can our characters make each other"
"... What's a football team? And it's not cold; I don't think any of us want to be devoured alive by giant monstrosities."
on a scale of 1 to "wandered into Dashcon by accident", they are probably a 6
It's like the world's most awkward staring contest, where instead of waiting for the other person to blink, it's waiting for them to 'fess up to their bullshit.
But when no cameraman pops out to inform her that she's on Candid Camera, Heather finally breaks.
"Okay. You're either from a totally different planet than me, or-- ... I don't know, Australia or something."
Giant monstrosities that devoured people alive are sort of par for the course there, right? ... But then, Heather's pretty sure Australians at least know what football is.
they get an extra hour in the ball pit.
Who was phone?When she says he might be from a different planet, he can't help but finally laugh a little.
"I... don't know what Australia is, either. So I guess it must be the first one?"
omg. "... Well, this is fun!" "I want my money back."
At first glance it seems impossible, but... well, under the circumstances, it really isn't too far out of the realm of possibility. Because HELL, it's not like she's ever heard of this island. Not that she's the most geographically-inclined person around, but this place doesn't even seem modern. Even third-world countries have phones somewhere and she hasn't seen a single one.
"So... wow. Yeah. Uh. Giant monstrosities? Not so common where I come from."
There's another pause, before she adds slowly:
"... I mean... not the kind that a wall could keep out, anyway."
marco would be delighted by a ball pit. wait.
The village is more familiar to him than her phone would be, at least - but still not exactly the same.
When she says giant monstrosities aren't common, and then amends that, his expression goes a little concerned.
"The walls worked fine.. up until a Colossal-type Titan showed up and knocked some of it down." Twice. The nerve of the bastard.
"But I can't imagine a world where there are monsters that can't be kept out by walls..."
https://38.media.tumblr.com/d3e71b2a51d614884822b69e0770adad/tumblr_n9214cofWl1rcy4afo1_500.png
Heather's head returns to its previous position, lying on her arms. Turning the world on its side somehow seems appropriate for this conversation, which is more surreal than she'd really prepared herself for.
"Sounds like it was a colossal dick, then."
... A simplistic outlook, but she's not exactly wrong.
Still a somewhat dark note enters her voice when she speaks again.
"I'd pay to see the wall that could keep the monsters in my world away."
i'll say it again, best art
"Yeah, you're not wrong. That's putting it lightly, actually."
Thousands of people died, and it's not like they needed to lose everyone. She speaks again, her tone dark, and Marco's struck by an urge to place a hand on her shoulder. He doesn't know her, though, and doesn't want to make it worse - so he refrains.
"What is it like in your world, aside from lobsters and football? If you don't mind me asking."
If she does, he'll find another topic. He's just endlessly curious.
5 AM is the best time to draw dumb subject-line jokes
Even without the changes that are destined to take hold of them, there's already a glint in Heather's eye that gives the impression she just might be the type to snap at the fingers of anyone bold enough to touch her without permission.
"It's... normal. Mostly. People go about their lives. Get up, go to work, go to sleep. Rinse, repeat. Till just a couple days ago, it was that way for me too. School and stuff."
She pauses, sucking her lips inward briefly. She's not quite looking at Marco-- her eyes had turned back out towards the sea again.
"... The monsters... most people don't know they exist."
no subject
The world she describes sounds similar, but not quite. School? He's heard of those, been to one when he was younger, but usually it's for people who want higher education. For him, it was something he went to as a child, and then he was taught by his mother when he was older. She goes every day? She must be very well-off.
As well as hidden monsters. Everyone knows about the Titans back home, and he can't help leaning forward a little curiously, looking out at the water.
"How can they not know about them if they exist?"
no subject
A sigh drifts out of Heather's lungs.
"It's... hard to explain."
As much as she's pretty sure she's got it all sorted out in her head at this point... the shock of seeing that first creature with no warning or understanding of what was going on is still fresh in her mind. It had seemed crazy then, and she's positive it would seem crazy to a stranger, too.
Even a stranger who apparently deals with giant monsters trying to bust into his backyard all the time.
"They're just not... there for most people. Like gum under a desk. You don't KNOW it's there unless you look for it, or-- touch it by accident and get it all over your fingers."
Or in her case, if you were bonded by destiny to the gum and a bunch of people wanted you to become the Gum Overlord and usher in a new era of sticky utopia that lost its flavor after you'd chewed it for a few hours.
"And then it's too late, it's stuck to you and you feel all gross for the rest of the day."
no subject
So while he doesn't quite get the context of what she means by not there, he does exhale sharply after a moment.
"I know what that last part is like. I don't know what kind of monsters would only be visible to some people, though. Maybe like... ghouls?"
Marco Bott is a superstitious person, and the concept of a ghoul is something he's familiar with it. They believe that kind of thing in Jinae. If she exists around things that are anything like that, then she's definitely brave.
"Either way, it sounds terrifying. If you ask for help but they can't see it..."
no subject
Ghouls is closer, she supposes-- certainly closer than giant man-eating dudes who roam the countryside, anyway. But still not quite there. She met a ghost once. The experience had been singularly unpleasant, but it still hadn't quite been the same as going toe-to-toe with the deformed monstrosities that crawled though the Otherworld.
"Sort of. It's more like..."
After a second of wracking her brain, she unwittingly comes up with a comparison that Marco might be a little more equipped to understand.
"You know when you're walking through a field or... you know, courtyard or whatever? And you're like 'Gosh, this sure is pretty nice!' But then you lift up a log or tile and underneath it, there's a bunch of worms and centipedes? It's like that. Except instead of them being under a log, it's like they're under-- under a layer of reality. And once that layer is lifted up for you... well, you're not... you're not seeing the same things as everybody else, that's for sure."
You're not seeing everyone else, either.
Possibly the scariest thing about the Otherworld was how everyone else seemed to have vanished in an instant.
Heather's pretty sure at this point that they hadn't disappeared for real-- if anything, it's that she disappeared. Disappeared to someplace close enough to touch and yet still far enough away that most people didn't even have an inkling of the horrors that lay just under the surface of what they were perceiving.
".... Anyway."