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

We'll never be worlds apart (The Graveyard)

Nightmares are rough on Pepa, as a rule. She's been known, before, to summon storms in her sleep, sleet and snow and freezing rain that has Felix shaking her awake before the bed is doused completely. This time, though, she's aware of being damp before she even opens her eyes, aware of the scent of the cold, and...soil? She reaches out for her husband, and her hand meets...nothing. Not even a blanket.

"...Mm...Felix?"

Slitting her eyes open, it's only a beat before the redhead sits bolt upright, wrapping her arms around herself in alarm. How did she get out here? Where IS she? It sort of looks like a - oh, God. Oh GOD.

Panic rises in her chest, and she fumbles to her feet, automatically reaching down to shake the dirt from her skirt. This is not the Encanto, is it? It's so foggy, so dark - maybe she should just calm down, let the sun come out, let it clear. Shutting her eyes again for a moment, she moves through a couple of counted breaths. "Clear skies. Clear skies."

Nothing is happening. Terror needles her further, and she shivers, opening her eyes, watching for some sign, any sign, her voice gradually rising.

"Clear skies clear skies CLEAR SKIES - CLEAR. SKIES."

Nothing, not so much as a gust of wind. Not even a new raincloud.

Her powers are gone, and Pepa Madrigal is left standing in her own shallow grave, shuddering and shellshocked, wondering when she'll snap out of this and find THIS is all a nightmare.

"Dolores? Dolores, please hear me, please wake me up, please wake me up...."

At least I showed up, you showed me nothing at all (The City)

With Antonio, it's common for all sorts of creatures to exist in spaces around Pepa back in the Encanto. For the most part, she finds all of them pretty sweet, fuzzy little creatures and friendly birds, rushing about at her son's side. The ones she doesn't find QUITE so sweet, however, are the insects. She tries her best to bear with them, of course, and the butterflies and crickets and grasshoppers can be cute.

But whatever these things are, they are not cute. Her lip curls in disgust as she makes eye contact with one of them who is noisily chewing on a still-wrapped bag of whole coffee beans.

"IT IS A FUCKING DAY, MONSTER!"

Really, she should be afraid - but her temper wins out, narrowing her big bright eyes. "WHAT did you just call me? And you watch your mouth, your language is-"

It's then that she realizes...there are so many of them. And they are all lumbering towards her, jabbering obscenities in an excited buzz. Instinctively, she holds her arms out, trying to urge a tornado to clear the way. When it doesn't work, she does the next best thing she can think to do -

She reaches down, takes off one of her shoes, and brandishes it with a warning in her eyes and her teeth gritted.

"Don't you come any closer, you - you THINGS!"

Ever since Mirabel woke up in a grave, climbed out to find her name engraved on a tombstone, she’s been a mess. However, she hears an unmistakable voice from one of the nearby open graves and scurries over.

Tia Pepa is there. Still alive - seemingly not harmed. Looking just as panicked as Mirabel felt when she woke up.

She leans over the side, holding her hand out.

“Tia Pepa! Up here!”

Edited 2022-02-06 13:17 (UTC)

"Mirabel?"

She recognizes the voice before she even sees her niece sticking her head over the edge of the grave - and she knows it means two things. Number one, she is not alone.

Number two, this may not be a nightmare. And if that's the case, then... she's gotta be the adult here, scared or not.

Reaching up to take her hand, Pepa struggles her way out of the hole, immediately embracing Mirabel just a little too tightly. "Are you all right? Where ARE we?"

Mirabel hugs back, relieved that she isn't alone either. Honestly? She's been terrified. She wasn't sure if her family was here, if they were okay - or if she was alone here. By herself. In this graveyard.

"I'm... okay." Not like, SUPER okay, but as okay as she can be for someone who just woke up in a grave. "I don't know where we are - I woke up in one of those graves too."

The hug helps, it really does - she pets Mirabel's head, kissing the top of it as her wide eyes dart around their surroundings. Her eyes fall on the headstone of the grave she just climbed out of, and she shudders to see her own name there.

Pulling back, she rests her hands on the girl's shoulders, trying - and failing - to keep her voice calm and even.

"It's all right, I'm here - I'm here, mija. Have you seen anyone else? Felix, o-or Julieta, or - anyone?"

Edited 2022-02-06 13:55 (UTC)

The words and the small kiss is comforting. She'll just continue to hug Pepa, afraid of letting go. Mirabel wants to be comforting too, she wants to tell her that the rest of the family is here and they're going to be okay, but...

"I-I haven't seen anyone else. Mamá is not here, and I haven't seen Tio Felix either..."

Even when she pulls back, her hands don't stray from Mirabel - picking dirt from her curls, from her clothes, moving, moving, moving. Like a whirlwind, Pepa is, just as she's always been. Even in this bizarre, dark place, it doesn't change.

Her face falls a little at the answer. Her newfound habit of not bottling things up so much has been great for her, but terrible for her poker face.

"Oh, Mirabel - it's okay. It's okay, we're going to be okay." A bit of jabbering, assuring herself as much as her niece. "We have each other, and we are still Madrigals, together."

Her smile twitches.

"Powers, or no powers."

It’s honestly comforting - Mirabel is kind of freaked out. As brave as she is normally, she just isn’t when sitting in a creepy graveyard.

“That’s right. We’re Madrigals. We can figure this out. Powers or no powers.

… Let’s get out of here, first.”

It’ll probably be better for both of their nerves if they aren’t in a graveyard. Mirabel starts to stand, and she’ll help Pepa to her feet too.

Oh, he'd recognise that voice anywhere. He'd been making his way around that area in an effort to avoid these creatures, and had just about gotten back to a safer part of the street when he hears, well, that.

He whirls and, sure enough, there's his sister, one shoe in her hand, looking ready to take down a crowd of those insect-men. The sight brings back memories of Pepa easily taking la chancla to anyone who'd dare insult her family. She probably could take down these creatures, only they have a tendency to swarm and really, the only thing to do is escape.

So he runs forward, grasping her arm as she lifts it to throw. "Woah, woah, woah, woah, Pepa, hermana, this is not a fight you can win--it's not a fight any one person can win, or even two people, we gotta run...."

Pepa is so deep in the moment that when her arm is grabbed, she balls up her other fist, ready to whirl on whatever grabbed it - only to find, much to her surprise, it's a familiar mop of dark curls and stream of stammered words instead of a cursing insect person.

"Bruno!? How-" But she looks around, and...he's right, she knows he's right. There are so many of them, too many of them, and they're closing in. Expression screwing into frustrated resignation moreso than fear, she drops the shoe back down, stepping into it. Her hand twists to grab her brother's hand.

"Fine - then let's RUN."

And run she does, taking off like a gale, fiery braid trailing behind her.

He's pulled along right behind her, charging past the gathering bug-men.

"This way!" Over there is an empty alley leading to a much more well-lit area--most likely safe from the insects if for no other reason than it's a lot more well-populated with people and... erm, well, he'll get to explaining that.

Once they reach safety he takes a moment to catch his breath. A beat. Then he throws his arms around her in a hug.

TDM: JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Pepa Madrigal | Encanto

The graveyard

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City

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