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

[friendshiplocket]

( Chara finally offers a hand. They're intrigued, to say the least. Was she just someone who was sheltered? Or, was there something more? )

Depends. Have you ever seen a talking animal before? ( If she hasn't called them a monster yet, then they doubt she lives in a world where monsters exist. )

[force_a_change]

[The offered hand is taken and she is totally getting out of the grave much easier now.]

No, I have not. [She was technically "dead" by the time the talking cat came into play in her world.] Unless on TV counts.

[She of course means like, on a TV show.]

[friendshiplocket]

( What a naïve person. As soon as she's out of the grave, Chara will keep their distance. At the least, she doesn't seem dangerous by any means. )

Not at all. Though, I'm sure you've seen werewolves on TV, have you not?

( Might as well get to the point. )

I'm a monster. I'm surprised the claws weren't enough to make you hesitate to begin with.

[force_a_change]

[Naive, or just not caring. She won't try to close the distance between them once she's out of the grave, she's polite enough to do that. In fact even as Chara speaks she's got her attention more on if the Gravekeeper is nearby, she has a hunch that whoever runs this place wouldn't be nice to random folks being around.]

No, I have not. [She answers, turning her attention back to the child werewolf.]

I see no reason to hesitate with someone who isn't hurting me.

[friendshiplocket]

( She may not be wrong with that assumption. In a world like this, there's more cruelty than kindness. )

That's a reckless way to think. I could just be waiting to strike when you least expect it.

[force_a_change]

I can handle myself.

[And she moves her hand as if to grab something from the waist of her skirt, and frowns when she comes back with nothing. She was expecting to have her knife and is disappointed to come up empty.]

At least I will once I manage to get myself a knife.

[friendshiplocket]

( Ah, they see that she's a person of culture as well.

They've said the same line to countless others who seemed to show concern for them. To Chara, it's a bit ignorant to judge someone's capabilities based on age. She may seem young, but they can't help but wonder what she may have gone through for her to say something like that. )

There are countless weapons on the beach. If you do not mind looking in-between corpses, that is.

[force_a_change]

And where is this beach?

[She's more concerned about not getting caught by whoever runs this place, which there is a distant clinking of something which catches her attention and she turns her attention towards where the sound came from.]

Corpses don't bother me, I'm technically "dead" anyway.

[friendshiplocket]

If you intend to go there now, you have a journey ahead of you. You will have to practically make your way across the peninsula. But, that won't stop you, will it?

( They raise an eyebrow at what she says next. )

Whoever or whatever brought us here seems to be fond of the dead.

[force_a_change]

Walking never killed anyone, after all.

[Which hey, she's going to start doing that to get out of this graveyard. Which Asakura is going to keep in mind that western graveyards are weird as heck.]

Let me guess, you're not alive either?

[friendshiplocket]

You aren't wrong in that assumption.

( They aren't sure if this is preferable to that void or not. But, at least they have control over their choices more than they did when Frisk was their partner. )

But, even if you have been brought here, don't expect to stay as you are for too much longer. I used to look very much human, as well.

[force_a_change]

[For Asakura it certainly beats having to stay in the Overmind and not exist as a singular being.

But she's not going to tell anyone, let alone Chara, that.]

Then it helps that I'm not human in the first place.

[friendshiplocket]

( That certainly catches their interest. )

We have more in common than I thought.

[force_a_change]

[That makes her stop.]

Somehow I have my doubts, little dog.

[Since they haven't exchanged names yet, Chara gets a kind of nickname.]

[friendshiplocket]

It's Chara.

( Hey, the nickname is a bit better than other names they've been given, but they still aren't so fond of it. )

I may not have looked the same at home, but I stopped considering myself a human long before arriving here.

[force_a_change]

Chara.

[She repeats the name, as if tasting it, before well... She'll give her own.]

Asakura is fine for me, and is that so? I've rarely heard of a human who stops considering themselves as one.

[friendshiplocket]

Asakura.

( It's all they offer in return - acknowledgement of her name. )

Most humans do not often decide to live with monsters, either.

( They won't go Too Much into their life at home. Chara was someone who didn't talk too much about themselves in the first place. )

[force_a_change]

Interesting.

[She's not going to say something as silly as "monsters don't exist" since she's from a world with aliens and time travellers and ESPers. Maybe monsters could exist back home, if Haruhi wanted them to.]

So, I guess you becoming one now must be a blessing hm?

[friendshiplocket]

Perhaps. I'm sure you would agree that humans do not sound like the most appetizing type of food.

( Not that killing is something difficult to them at this point in time, mind you. But, there's something that feels... different when lives aren't taken as easily as they were at home. )

[force_a_change]

I think how appealing human sounds depends on various factors, but I would have to say it doesn't sound like one now.

[Asakura is pretty casual about talking about this, even though she herself has never actually killed anyone.

Almost killed, yes, but never done the deed.]

[friendshiplocket]

Of course not. Cannibalism is usually last resort for a reason.

( This wouldn't be the first time they spoke about cannibalisms casually. )

Unless you want to go mad, you'll adapt to the idea of it.

[force_a_change]

[She can't help but chuckle at Chara's words.]

Well, I like to think I'm pretty adaptable compared to the others, so we'll have to see.

[friendshiplocket]

Someone who says something like that is used to being thrown into unique situations.

( They're not even sure if it's because she's not human. In Chara's experience, nonhumans could be sensitive. Though, they suppose it was part of their kindness. )

[force_a_change]

Well, fighting to save someone's life is pretty unique... And so is ceasing to exist, so I guess I am used to it.

[Asakura is not sensitive at all, sure she can be nice and sweet and kind. But she doesn't understand things like, why someone wouldn't want to die.]

[friendshiplocket]

The former is not so strange, though people do not tend to be selfless without some selfish means behind it.

( In Chara's experience, the only beings that were truly selfless were monsters, and the ones here were by no means the same as the ones at home. )

... You may have ceased to exist at home, but it's impossible to truly die here.