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graveyardsmash2022-03-12 09:40 am
ryslighelpers) wrote in graveyardsmash2022-03-12 09:40 am
Entry tags:
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 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.
no subject
[SOMEBODY has to work for them, it's just not you, Vampire.]
When it comes to earning other coin, unfortunately, working for a living is necessary in this world too. It's only part of why I got a job as quickly as I had, of coursse, but...it didn't hurt in terms of urgency.
[It's not like you arrive with money, which is the scary part. You could very well just be completely homeless and destitute for a while to start if you can't find someone who is willing to help out. The apartments were an amazing boon for Sparkling though, and they still are to this day. And then of course there's Horatio, who secured him his bartending gig. He doesn't know what he would have done without him.
He would have waited tables in some other establishment, and he would have done it well. But it wouldn't have been ideal.]
I'm not going to see you languish with nothing, though. I'll help you all I can.
[He does sort of...gently tilt his head a bit as he continues, though.]
But...it may not be the worst idea in the world to see if you can't find someplace with work you might enjoy.
no subject
[Vampire throws himself backwards against the back of the couch, splaying his arms out dramatically.]
An' what could I even do? My only skills are getting drunk and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... biting things. And I can't do one of those anymore.
[He's not entirely wrong, but... those aren't exactly his only skills. Vampire had been knowledgeable enough about grape juice to surprise and impress Sparkling, when they'd first met, and it's not ridiculous to think he might take to learning about wine with equal gusto. It might not be much, but it's something, for starters.]
no subject
[Easier said than done for someone who literally hasn't worked a day in his life...]
I can think of plenty of things you're good at. You're so adept at tasting wine you could try your hand at being a food critic, if you didn't mind also tasting anything that came paired with it. That, in turn, could lend itself to giving writing a try.
There are also radio stations all around that seem to be constantly looking for personalities, and you have a voice that's relaxing to listen to.
I could even see you working in almost any venue in which you would be dealing with customers...you have to really have the right personality for it, which I do think you have. I could go on, but I think you're getting my point.
[That point being...]
Try before you say you can't do anything. At least do it for me, if not yourself.
no subject
[It's a jab at Sparkling, sure, but his tone is friendly and teasing enough. Vampire goes a little quiet as Sparkling is suddenly extolling his virtues, though, staring down at the couch with a slight flush in his cheeks. He's... he's not that good at any of that stuff. Is he?]
My voice is good, huh...?
[Not something he'd ever considered about himself before, but if Sparkling noticed... and he does like just rambling on about whatever to anyone willing to listen once he's a few glasses in. Still, though, some part of his nature is violently rejecting the thought of doing anything labeled "work," even if it is something he technically enjoys. He just doesn't get it, he guesses.]
It's still work, though.
[That's as close as he can get to putting that sentiment to words. Honestly, he figures Sparkling will probably work enough for two people no matter how he tries to get the guy not to do that, and he almost wants to ask if it's really necessary for him to get a job as a result. But he also doesn't wanna openly encourage the other cookie to work himself to death. Or. Extra death. However that works. So instead, he just makes a frustrated, whiny noise.]
no subject
Just think about it. You don't have to worry about it right now, not when things are so new.
[He doesn't expect Vampire to just strike out there and begin working when it's in his very nature to just...avoid it at all costs. Sparkling isn't going to force it.
He just...he worries. There could very well come a day where Sparkling isn't here...and Vampire is left to take care of himself.
Alone. Just like Sparkling had been.]
A lot happens here. You honestly may not have much time to focus on it anyway.
no subject
Yeah, 'cause I'm supposed to turn into something at some point, right? Turning us into wit- humans wasn't enough, I guess.
[He pauses, frowning before blurting out the remainder of that thought.]
What if I just turn back into a vampire, like you? Then what was even the point?
no subject
[He can't say he understands why people change into the monsters they do, only that it happens and it's inevitable. They're powerless to stop it.
It's funny, because he wasn't even referring to the changes in particular when he mentioned "a lot" happening...but Vampire doesn't need to know about the horrors of the previous month. Not right now.]
You already can see for yourself that I'm becoming much different than you're used to. And I can't say yet that I'm even finished changing. I really don't know.
[It scares him, not knowing.
And honestly? Truly honestly? He hopes Vampire doesn't have to experience becoming this type of Vampire.
He doesn't want him to have to go through what he did...dying, like he did.]
no subject
[The fact that these vampires are so different... not even he can miss that. Vampire hasn't missed the way Sparkling is so much more drained than usual, either, although he... hasn't figured out the right way to bring that up, yet. Part of him almost doesn't want to. He's a little scared to learn what Sparkling's already been through, maybe, having read the beginnings of it in his eyes.]
...It'd be the least unfamiliar though, right? The easiest, maybe? Dunno why I'd be anything else, I mean it's my name.
[What's he even going to do if he turns into something else, really?]
But it'd still be pretty weird. That's way too many steps just to make me a vampire again, but like, a human-vampire. You know? Can't my "monster" transformation just be this? Witches are pretty monstrous already...
[Only from a cookie's perspective, perhaps. Whether Vampire ends up having to feed on humans or on cookies, well, that's effectively the same to him, isn't it? The diet isn't really what he's getting hung up on.
He was already a monster, after all.]
no subject
[Sparkling leans back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. It wasn't even that long ago, now.]
It seems unnecessarily cruel to change us from our original forms if we're just going to change again anyway, I'd said. Most seemed to agree with me, others had their own varying answers and explanations for why it could be.
In the end, my personal take on it is that it all has to do with power. The Fog God, who I told you a bit about, has the power to change us, here. So the Vampire I'm turning into now? It's her ideal version of one, I would assume.
Humans, in her eyes, are not that. So we become monsters instead.
no subject
[Well, except for the fact that it'd take a full blown god to do this kind of thing on this kind of scale, maybe. Not even the Legendary cookies from back home could pull something like this off, probably. Vampire closes his eyes, looking like he's seconds from falling asleep where he lies, now. Are possible explanations for all this madness even worth thinking about when they don't actually have any way of knowing? He definitely doesn't think so. Why worry when it can't be helped.
So he'll change the subject instead.]
Oh yeah, the network though, you gotta show me how that works, Sparky. I wanna talk to people without havin' to go anywhere!
no subject
You should have gotten a laptop when you arrived. They're pretty big and bulky, but they're not as hard to use as you'd think. I can show you how when we get back home from my shift, how does that sound?
no subject
[Not that Vampire has any intention of being anything other than Very Drunk by the time they get back. Of course, he also thinks he can totally handle it. But if Sparkling really wants to inflict Vampire's drunken ramblings on the network at large...]
Hey, I get to meet your coworkers too, right? Ha, imagine that, you workin' with other cookies for once! What're they like?
no subject
Other humans, remember? Or, rather...humans-turned-monster, I suppose.
[Vampire may not realize it just yet, but he and Sparkling are the only two cookies that exist on the peninsula. At least, as far as he's aware...]
I like them all, genuinely. They've been very good to work with, and very kind and helpful to me ever since I started working there, and beyond that. I would have been in a bad way on more than one occasion if they weren't willing to help me.
no subject
[At least Vampire has mostly managed to internalize that the humans (and monsters, though he doesn't consider that such a huge leap, really) here are also people, just like all the cookies they knew back home. That doesn't mean it isn't still a big adjustment, though.]
Heh, in other words, they're makin' sure you don't work yourself to crumbs, right?
[Vampire beams at Sparkling from the couch, but needle as he might, he's honestly glad to hear it. Not that he had many doubts - Sparkling could probably charm the pants off a dragon if he had to.]
no subject
[They try, but succeeding is purely up to chance and whether or not Sparklling will actually listen. The only times Sparkling has taken off on days that he was scheduled have been solely related to changes basically forcing his hand. Not that Vampire would be surprised if he knew that...
Sparkling is just going to try real hard to make sure he doesn't ever have to know that.]
They've made sure I have work, housing, and don't go hungry. It's basically a kindness I don't think I'll ever be able to fully repay...so I'm trying to pay it forward in other ways.
[He explains as he moves about the kitchen, wiping down the counters.]
I offer a helping hand to those who are new and might otherwise need it. If that isn't possible, I'm a listening ear instead.
no subject
That's just like you, Sparky... always lending cookies a shoulder. Just don't let anyone lean on you too hard, yeah? Y'can't worry about everything.
no subject
I won't. There isn't a whole lot I've been able to do yet as it is. You can see that for yourself, given that I'm living out of an apartment with some pocket change to my name.