TEST DRIVE MEME: MAY/JUNE

[ryslighelpers]

TDM: MAY/JUNE

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

[souffrance]

( Criminal cases - sure. There's an awkward upwards twitch of his lip as Will gives the man another good look - up and down, taking in the whole of his appearance. Facing one another, they seem a little displaced, as if there are decades dividing them; but is that based on appearance alone, or is Will overreaching with his imagination? Nothing quite makes sense yet and yet he cannot with any certainty reject what his eyes are registering.

Instead he concerns himself with the way he is observed by this inspector Javert. Idle curiosity is replaced with a certain caution even as he pockets the business card and there's an attempt at understanding the nature behind the intensity of the man's gaze. Without further understanding of his own significance, however, how could he?

Instead, he remains still, waiting for the man's next move. )

A good evening, ( he offers with a slow nod. It doesn't feel like a good evening. There is yet far too much missing, but this man has a least made all those insistent strangers back off and he can appreciate that despite the otherwise strange nature, of well, everything. ) You're not planning to eat me next?

( Surprisingly - or not if one were to know him - there is no fear in Will's voice. His tone manages the same questioning curiosity reserved for his inquiries. )

What's stopping you?

[inseine]

[Javert's stare is cold as he tilts his head back to appraise Will through half-lidded eyes.]

Force of will. [Is that a flick of a smirk again? Recognition of his pun? It is too quick to register, but the recognition in his eye is burning brightly. He counts off each reason why he shall not consume Will's blood with his fingers.] Practice. A fresh kill warming my cold, dead innards. Your position as a new arrival to the peninsula. I do not make it a habit to feast on men that shall return the favor. That's a bad business, indeed!

[Not a habit, because there is one exception in the form of a fellow vampire.

He closes his fist and turns to squarely appraise the city, frowning, considering his options. Typically he would march to the city morgue first, to clean up after himself and keep the families from wasting their time and money clamoring for their missing family members. God knows, Javert hates those cases, when weepy families would beg to hear what became of their missing grandfathers, dads, sisters, brothers. Consumed. Clearly. That is how most of those cases closed. Yes, he knows it is much better to cut out that aggravation entirely.

With Will Graham at his side... well, that changes his plans. The night is yet young, he ought to lead Graham to a very good doctor for wound treatment and a family reunion before he resumes with the rest of his night. And so he turns away from the city, instead starting to make his way along the coast. He pauses several paces away and glances over his shoulder.]

Well? You require a doctor, don't you? [he beckons with his cold brand of natural authority.] Follow me, Monsieur Graham.

[souffrance]

What makes you think I'll return the favor?

( For the time being, that is all Will can take from Javert's final reason to keep him alive - without further knowledge of this place or those who inhabit it, what else is he supposed to think? Unless this man is privy to Will's deepest thoughts, there is no way he can truly guess that any aggression would be met with calculated vengeance. This, of course, assuming he would survive.

He's already lucked out a few too many times.

The silence that settles briefly is contemplative: his eyes only dart from the man to his general line of sight to consider what he intends to do next. He called him a new arrival which prompts Will to consider that this may not be the first time he has seen people in a similar condition. The onlookers that had surrounded them behaved similarly, as if his arrival was both important but feared - their talk of monsters, their over-hospitable nature... It is surreal, for lack of a more appropriate word, and while Will is not a stranger to that he is nonetheless suspicious. Can he be blamed? Moments ago he was atop a cliff, watching as the blood seeped from the Great Red Dragon, spreading like wings. His hands had clung tightly to Hannibal Lecter, the space between them null before he tipped them over and everything faded.

He is snapped out of the reverie by Javert's voice and he tilts his head forward, taking but a step before he pauses, shaking his head and his next question is slow, calculated. )

You've told me why you wouldn't kill me - but you have no reason to help me, either.

How can I be sure this isn't a trick?

[inseine]

Oh? You don't buy into a Good Samaritan of a vampire? [Javert snorts. His nose twitches fervently, and he takes another long sniff, the first sign that he is even capable of breathing. He pins Will with a studying, sidelong glance.] Sensible fellow. I do not fault you.

[Three bodies. Three additional bloods. That is what Javert caught a whiff of, and what he second-guessed with his prolongued inhale. The Inspector assumed that Will Graham was covered in his own blood, but he now smells three distinct individuals on him. There is the rugged, wet and wild fragrance of Will Graham himself. There is a smoke-heavy stench, acrid, sharp, and billowing with flame. And there is the last--refined, dark, complex, familiar.

The last one belongs to Hannibal Lecter. Javert could not forget that smell and that flavor. He drank a whole body's worth. Monsieur Fire-and-Smoke remains a mystery, and he mentally tabulates that information as something to probe further when the time is right.

In any case, it all but confirms his suspicions and assumptions without a word about it exchanged between them. He nonchalantly looks back to the road.]

Think. What the devil do I gain by luring you?

I could do it, certainly. But why on earth would I, when I can simply command you to do as I please? [You saw what Javert was capable of, Graham.] Why, when you'll find your own way in our wretched society in another month? We monsters tend to be vengeful brutes. It is an annoying waste of time to fall into a circular revenge-trap. It is in both of our best interests to be nice, good gentlemen to each other. Much more pleasant this way.