TDM: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

[ryslighelpers]

TDM: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

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 in a dark ditch, the sky cloudy overhead. Dirt cakes into your cuts and scrapes. The air is clammy and damp, and it smells like rain.

You’re in a grave. And when you sit up to inspect the tombstone marking your spot, it has your name on it. Maybe the graves next to you have the names of familiar friends, family, acquaintances. Not all of them are open like yours are. RIP.

There’s a light dancing in the distance, and you hear the jingle-jangle of heavy keys, or worse still, the gravekeeper’s massive pitchfork or shovel. If you're lucky, you can sneak out beyond his notice, and get out alone. If not - you might find yourself on the wrong end of a shovel’s swing, or worse yet, tripping headfirst in front of a pair of monstrous eyes.

SCENARIO TWO

So you've just arrived, and you’re surrounded by an incredibly odd group of natives. Some of them wear elaborate headdresses that resemble a deer, or a horse with seaweed instead of a mane, or a ferocious cat. All of them are covered in tattoos and piercings, and their clothing mirrors their ‘beast’ of choice, from snakeskin boots for the snake-people to cowhide and leathers for the minotaurs, manticore-kin, or kelpie-kin. These people introduce themselves as members of the scouting team for the Tågevalgten, and they’re here to help you settle in! They load you onto a rickety old bus and take you into Town.

The Town is called Rota, according to the rusted road-sign. And the central lodge is all decked out and ready to go for a reception, Children of the Fog welcome. There are food and drink aplenty, mostly meat-heavy, and if you ask them where the meat came from… Well! Maybe you shouldn’t ask.

The Tågevalgten gladly share helpful pamphlets for you. “Embrace Your Fog-Given Gifts,” they proclaim. Most of them are fashioned to sound like self-help with a religious bent favoring a divine entity called the Fog God: “Monster Types And YOU: What Fits Your Personality? Take Our 99% Accurate Quiz Inside!”, “Shed Your Human Skin And Thrive,” “Be Uniquely You And Uniquely Free,” “What to Expect When You're Expecting (to turn into a monster).” There's even some thick books carefully cataloguing certain monsters and the changes they might go through. Some of these seem to have been passed down from one monster to the next.

After awhile, it’s clear that the Tågevalgten are a bit too friendly and enthralled with buttering you up. In fact, it’s clear that they don’t want you to leave their fold, happy to keep you strapped together with a kumbaya around the campfire. They might not let you go until you take a bite of their Soylent Green or accept a group hunting trip with other newbies, and so on and so on. There’s always some excuse.

Maybe someone else can help you out of these uncomfortable pickles and get you away from here.

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? Does it fit you, or does it feel incongruous with your nature? Feel free to pick any monster type for this prompt, but note that you may not get the same one in game.

Comments

[agent_aquato]

"We're not here to hurt you, we just- Ow!" [In leau of anything else available, the gravesman lobs a rock at the unsuspecting child's head. It bounces Off harmlessly. Thank you helmet--or should he be thanking his thick skull?]

"Monsters! I'll get you. Monsters ALL OF YOU!!" [The man shrieks as he turns tail to flee with Loboto shaking the man's own shovel back at him. Raz rubs the side of his head as they watch the man depart. Huh. What had then been about?]

"He called us monsters." [What does that even MEAN?]

[atouchofhalitosis]

[Loboto shudders hard like a dog fresh in from the rain, grip on the shovel handle so tight his palm begins to ache.]

...I don't know. No way he could tell you're a psychic-

[Or were. Something was very wrong. Of course that was the first thing his brain drew to, though.]

...are you hurt?

[agent_aquato]

"Uh." ['Since when has that ever mattered to you?' Raz wants to ask with the skeptical rise of his brow, but seeing the other stops him in his tracks. The dirt print left from the shovel that nearly struck the tooth enthusiast; how hard said enthusiast is clutching said shovel.

They're both alone, both 'disarmed' in a way. Loboto could have left him. Loboto could have used him as bait. Loboto could have shoved him into the grave he had been looking at and laughed. He hadn't done any of those things. He almost got hurt by not doing any of those things.
Clairvoyance still isn't working, not that having it ever really clued him in on what the Dentist might be thinking before.]

"Well Doctor Loboto. You may not be a Psychonaut. Or even a dentist. Or someone who is probably allowed to be around people at all, actually. But."

[Raz sighs, staring him down. Everyone had dark things inside. Things they couldn't help. Events that made them who they were. Loboto is no exception.]

"You deserve. A chance." [And it's only with a slight frown of worry that he offers his hand.]

"So, I'm going to help you get your arm back, okay?"