TDM: MARCH / APRIL

[ryslighelpers]

TDM: MARCH / APRIL

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

Nie Huaisang | Mo Dao Zu Shi

[sheathedclaws]

2

Panic is just the surface of his life right now, even as people approach him, his expression clearly upset as he tries to ask questions, not getting the responses he wants in favor of pamphlets shoved at him. "I don't.... Can't you just tell me where I am? How do I get home?" His voice does carry, pamphlets held against his chest as he looks around.

His hair is a mess, robes salt stiff and his discomfort is more than clear as he stands there, before finally starting to move again. Offered food does at least get a slight nod, his stomach settling once he'd eaten the offered pastry.

"I want to go home...."

4

He'd actually read the information after calming down, but still, knowing it was coming hadn't changed his initial reaction to the alternations, namely bursting into tears when he woke up to find himself with not only wings but also half the size he'd been when he'd fallen asleep.

Although once he's had some time to calm down and leave, his size almost back to normal, he's twisting to try and look at his wings critically.

4

[legbreakings]

The Simulacrum isn't one to go out of his way and offer help to random people, least of all when there are emotions involved, or even worse, the danger of tears.

But here is this man, obviously unused to his new monster form, making a nuisance of himself right in front of him on the sidewalk trying to get a good look at his wings. Wings with which he has almost smacked Jiang Cheng in the face twice while he tries to move past him.

"Do you want me to rip them off so you can look?" he huffs, his gramophone recording-like voice even more staticky than usual in his annoyance, and raises a hand to bat the wing away as the next twirl nearly gets him in the face again.

Other than the voice, he looks human enough though still unusual by Ryslig standards, wearing purple robes and a silver guan, Zidian at his left hand while the right is gloved. There is only a sliver of stark white, looking conspicuously like porcelain rather than painted skin, peeking out from beneath the high collar of his robes. He carries a sword, albeit it is unadorned unlike Sandu.

Re: 4

[sheathedclaws]

The tone is familiar even if the voice is all wrong and he's twisting again to look, gaze locking on purple robes and a bell before traveling up and just staring at the completely unfamiliar face, brow furrowing as he tries to make sense of what's in front of him.

And moves closer, peering up into his face, fan twitching in one of his hands. "You dress like a Jiang disciple and that does sound like something Jiang-xiong would say but I don't think he's had new sect members that long and definitely none as old as you are."

Re: 4

[legbreakings]

He twitches, actually physically rearing back in surprise. Other cultivators he has met here, yes, but ones who know the Jiang sect are rarer - and this one doesn't wear clothes he can pinpoint to any sect.

Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes on the man as he tries to remember if he has ever seen him in passing at a conference or night hunt. Of course, with people being taken from different times, who is even saying that Jiang-xiong he is speaking of hasn't lived centuries ago.

"I am a Jiang disciple", he responds curtly, head held high and already losing patience with these mind games the Fog God likes to play, "I'm Jiang Wanyin. The sect leader of Yunmeng Jiang."

Too old! Pah!

Re: 4

[sheathedclaws]

"No you're not. He doesn't wear his hair down." Another appraisal.

"Well, you're not him, anyway. He's much better looking."

[legbreakings]

...and that is when Jiang Cheng makes a strangled noise somewhere between outrage and just plain rage, which his speakers underlay with high-pitched staticky screeching like a speaker dying on you.

There is some opening and closing of his mouth - which notedly doesn't have an effect on whether the noise continues, only on the volume - before he finally remembers how to use his words.

"You must really want to lose your wings!"

[sheathedclaws]

"I don't, though, but you can't just claim to be Jiang-xiong and expect me to believe it blindly!" Huaisang's fingers twitch on his fan as he takes a step back, gaze wary.

"I mean you are a Jiang, but..."

[legbreakings]

"Jiang-xiong!" he echoes in a bark, only growing more frustrated with the man's insistence that he claims to know him. "You speak of me familiarly and yet you don't know how close you are to getting your legs broken!"

The thought that he could be like Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji crosses his mind, but there are recognizable things about them when you know to account for the distortions. Lans still wear white and are obnoxiously stuck-up, Wei Wuxian still wears a red ribbon in wilder hair. There is the fan, but this man isn't even wearing Nie colors.

"Just stop playing games and tell me who you claim to be."

[sheathedclaws]

"But I'm not addressing you. Jiang-xiong is my friend, I don't even know you!" His wings flutter as he speaks, his voice higher pitched in being upset The question though does distract him, Huaisang pausing for a moment before offering a proper greeting bow.

"Nie Huaisang. If you claim to be Jiang-xiong, how could you not know that?"

[legbreakings]

Here comes the next round of outraged noises because this?

"This is a joke!" he snaps, stepping close towards him to intimidate, his hand twitching with the petty desire to snatch the man's fan away and smack him over the head with it. "I saw Nie Huaisang days before I was kidnapped and he wasn't even half as annoying as you!"

Which is neither the point, which is that this man looks nothing like his Nie Huaisang, nor strictly speaking true. That whole revenge scheme had been a major annoyance. But he really needed to get a jab in to vent his own annoyance - annoyance which is quickly turning towards the situation at large. If this is really some alternate Nie Huaisang... Even more mirror headaches. Just what he needs.

[sheathedclaws]

He doesn't step back even if his grip tightens on his fan, his eyes never leaving the stranger's face. "I don't know what you're talking about! I've never seen you before in my life and Jiang-xiong is my age!"

[legbreakings]

Jiang Cheng does take note of the distinct lack of backing down or cowering, something he would have expected from his Nie Huaisang at this age, and it only leaves him more inclined to break that stupid fan over his stupid head.

"Well I'm not, use your eyes! And use your brain while you are at it! Do you think anything about being abducted to another world is going to be normal!"

As if he didn't spend months clinging to the theory that Wei Wuxian is a talking bug because he didn't want to deal with alternate realities.

[sheathedclaws]

"Obviously things aren't like home here, but that doesn't mean I'm going to accept you without some kind of proof." He counters, wings fluttering in with his upset.

"So how are you going to make me believe your claims?"

[legbreakings]

If he had access to his cultivation, this at the latest would be the cue for Zidian to be sparking at his hand. Here Zidian is nothing but a fancy bracelet and he starts, finding himself at a loss how to convince this man.

There are so many small but meaningful differences between his past and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's, there is no saying what remained the same with this man.

When in doubt, be obstinate.

"Why should I need to convince you?" he bristles, lips twisted into a sneer. "You're the one who is lying about being Nie Huaisang!"

[sheathedclaws]

"I am NOT!" Is that a foot stamp, it might well be. "I am Nie Huaisang and you should know that! At least Jiang-xiong would!"

[legbreakings]

You want to flounce at him, Nie Huaisang imposter? He will never back down from a pettiness competition.

"You don't even know what the Nies look like!" he barks right back, gesturing at his green robes. "What you are wearing is the sorriest excuse at playing dress-up I've ever seen!"

[sheathedclaws]

"I know exactly what the Nie sect and clan looks like given I'm one of the only clan members left alive!" He snaps, his expression going from annoyed to angry, his posture shifting slightly as he steadies himself.

"You don't get to insult my clan robes when you look like that!"

[legbreakings]

Well. Fine. It had been a low blow, solely due to his own annoyance with the situation at large. It doesn't mean he is going to apologize, but that reminder of being one of the only left alive... that does hit hard. He would have been infuriated, too.

"Let's just stop wasting time on these things," he says briskly instead of jumping at the fight in the making, which is pretty close to apologizing in his book. "You're not my Nie Huaisang and I'm not your Jiang Cheng. But there are others here from a similar world who don't look like they should."

[sheathedclaws]

"As long as you admit I'm not lying." He does calm down a little, his wings still fluttering behind him and he tries to get another look.

"...Who else?" when his attention returns to the man claiming to be Jiang-xiong.

[legbreakings]

"Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. They have more in common with the ones I know than you do but it is basically the same."

They are certainly more alike in personality, while he doesn't see much of the skittish headshaker he had dealt with for so many years in this Nie Huaisang. Calm as he is, he reminds Jiang Cheng more of the man who had only revealed himself once the mask came down. Had he been so fearless as a boy? It's been a long time and his judgment skewed by everything that happened since but he had been far less concerned about consequences while Nie Mingjue was still alive.

[sheathedclaws]

"Wei-xiong and Wangji-xiong are here? Why didn't you say so?" His mood shifts far too quickly, Huaisang fanning himself for a moment before closing the fan.

"Can you take me to them?"

[legbreakings]

Jiang Cheng scowls at him. "You didn't ask, you were too busy telling me I'm not Jiang Cheng!"

Another token scoff and then he relents. "I'll contact them to come see you." It may turn out they are no more familiar to Nie Huaisang than he is but there is no need to argue about that just yet.

[sheathedclaws]

"Well you aren't." He points out, his expression falling for a moment before he perks back up.

"I'd like to see Wei-xiong at least. I haven't really talked to him since...." He trails off.

"It's been years."

[legbreakings]

"He should be happy enough to talk to you, whether you are from his world or not. He is friendly, and likes to talk to people."

And Jiang Cheng at least knows nothing of problems between Wei Wuxian and Huaisang in his world, only of the dire end things had with his own Jiang Cheng. It should be safe enough.

"My laptop is at the inn I'm staying at tonight. I'll write to them, and tell them," he looks around, spying a restaurant down the street, "to meet you over there at that restaurant tonight, at the Happy Crab." Which sounds more like a disease to him than a food place but... It will do.

[sheathedclaws]

"Or I could stay with you until you hear back from them. I mean, it makes the most sense." He points out before glancing toward the restaurant.

"And we can figure this whole thing out. There have to be some things you can tell me that would at least prove your identity."