graveyardsmash | TDM: JANUARY/FEBRUARY

TDM: JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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

You've stumbled your way out of the graveyard, and you're promptly besieged by the overwhelming sights and sounds of the city. Cars honk at you to get out of the street, and strangers try not to look in your direction for too long. They see your dirty clothes and scraped faces, and pretend to busy themselves with something else. Rarely, a look of pity is cast your way.

But some people try to reach out. Enterprising citizens and those that hope to curry favor with the newcomers pass out new clothes and bundles of food, asking if you have a place to stay the night, wondering about the details of the world you came from. Some are even handing out pamphlets which vary in how helpful they are--"What To Expect When You're Expecting (To Turn Into A Monster)", "Wolpertinger: Fact or Fiction?", "100% ACCURATE MONSTER QUIZ ASSESSMENT: GUARANTEED TO PREDICT YOUR MONSTER!", and "Ryslig Law In A Nutshell".

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? 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The sound of a familiar voice yelling is what gets her attention. Kate's plan had been simple: snoop around, try and find out if anyone she'd known was here, change into a much more reasonable form, and then show up and talk to them.

Unfortunately, the more instinctual part of her brain, the one used to protect her friends in the middle of a trial, is what takes over at that yell. Potentially saving a friend in trouble is far more important than not surprising them by showing up looking like a wild animal, right?

A wild animal that happens to have a cute pastel pink scarf around its neck, but a wild animal none the less. Who's tail is wagging about a mile a minute as she looks up at Nancy, putting herself between the her and the lumbering figure. Who definitely notices the very non-human shape and turns around quite quickly in apparent fright.

Give Kate a moment to not make this weird. She's just happy to see another friend out of the fog.]

[ it's only when said lumbering figure turns around that Nancy realizes that she's made a mistake, a habit not entirely unfamiliar* to her. the shovel seems to come with the literal territory - how else had she gotten in this hole? - but the pitchfork. well. that's threatening looking.

but Nancy doesn't have to worry about that guy for more than the two seconds it takes to form the words 'oh, bullshit' in her head, before a new and more insistent problem is introducing itself into her frazzled world.

does Nancy notice the cute scarf, the wagging tail, the seeming excitement buzzing off of the tawny colored wolf? absofuckinglutely not. the ability to analyze and appreciate the finer details of things has been worn down to the quick in her, save for those finer details that had served to prolong her life in trials. certain subtle hints about what killer she might be facing? yeah, Nancy is well-attuned to those. but in this case, all she sees is the beast, and all her brain can produce beyond the flashing red alert WOLF is this: ]

Aaaaah!

[ for once, not a scream of misery, but of abject alarm, and Nancy's very first instinct, the one that she leans into, is to shift her weight into her left leg so that she can swing her right out, swiftly kicking the thing in the throat.

oh. now she sees the scarf. well, that's odd. ]

* jesus fucking christ why is her life a series of well intentioned mistakes?

[The effect is immediate the moment the kick lands: A yelp of both surprise and pain that might sound suspiciously similar as said wolfs head snaps to the side from the force of the kick.

It's hard to say if the pain tolerance is from the fog or from her new found form, but at the very least Kate knows it was.... definitely her fault she got kicked. She coughs as she shakes her head to try and make it feel a bit better, though her tail isn't wagging as hard anymore.

Wonder why that could be.]

I see you've got a mean left kick to go with that stellar right hook of yours.

[The wolf talks, sounds like perhaps a familiar friend, and doesn't move from her current spot. She's already spooked Nancy enough, and she really doesn't want to get more of her shit kicked in.]

It's Kate, by the way.

[ why Nancy doesn't run is both a mystery and a testament to her own dormant common sense. either way, she watches in grotesque fascination as the kick lands and the thing yelps and - well, that's weird. there's a flicker of recognition, but Nancy doesn't have very long to puzzle about it before the wolf is speaking.

she stumbles backward now, not out of fear, but of overwhelm, because the tawny wolf has definitely just spoken with Kate Denson's voice - she could never forget that voice, not in a million lifetimes - and now Nancy understands why the scarf seems so familiar. but. this thing definitely doesn't look like Kate, even as it announces what she already knew. ]

Um. [ a single eloquent syllable as Nancy's blue eyes dart around, from the scarf to her eyes to the tail to the teeth. ] What big teeth you have...

[ per usual, abjectly lame humor is one way Nancy deals with stress. for good measure, she takes another step back. ]

[Kate makes the absolute flattest expression she's ever made in response to- well, just about anything, complete with wolfy ears down turned.]

Funny. [But! She is still excited, and the fact that Nancy hasn't run screaming (or tried to kick her again) is probably the best she can ask for given things.

So she'll charge ahead in the conversation, trying to take advantage of that fact that Nancy hasn't run yet to try and keep her from doing just that.]

Listen. Long story short, I'm a werewolf, just saved your ass from taking a shovel to the head, and we probably shouldn't stick around here for too long, so before you feel like runnin' away like the demogorgon is on your heels, you might wanna follow me to somewhere marginally more safe. Also so I can get my hands back again.

[#dogproblems]

TDM: JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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