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graveyardsmash2022-09-09 09:15 am
ryslighelpers) wrote in graveyardsmash2022-09-09 09:15 am
Entry tags:
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
(CW: Human remains)
When you awaken, you are hit with an immediate feeling of motion. A bobbing, if you will, or perhaps more of a rocking. You take a deep breath through your nose and take note of salt, along with the pungent scent of rotting wood. Creaking sounds echo all around you. Sitting up, you find yourself locking eyes with a skull.
An entire human skeleton is positioned across from you, resting limply against a pillar. Surveying the rest of your surroundings, you soon realize that you're below deck on an old, dilapidated ship. A ship that's on the move. The crew must have suffered a terrible fate, strewn as they all are across the floor. With their ripped poofy shirts, sheathed cutlasses and jaunty feathered hats, they seem to scream one word at you. "Pirates". ...Ooh, is that an abandoned bottle of rum? And a treasure chest? Surely they won't mind if you help yourself. They're dead, after all!
Once you've ascended the creaky steps, you find yourself on the deck of this vast, once proud vessel. A tattered Jolly Roger flaps overhead. Thick fog obscures most of the ocean surrounding you, but what's that straight ahead? Land ho! The ship's about to make port, and a crowd of curious onlookers has already gathered on the docks to stare up at this spooky new arrival. They appear apprehensive, perhaps even fearful, as if they haven't seen a ship come in for a long time. Will they hold you accountable for what happened to the skeleton crew? Will they praise you for 'ridding' them of pirates and allow you to keep the booty? There's no way to know just yet. Perhaps you'd best hide and find a way to disembark without being seen. Or perhaps there's someone else to be found here on this ship who suffered the same fate; someone who has a better idea of what to do.
SCENARIO TWO
You've stumbled your way into a city, and you're promptly besieged by the overwhelming sights and sounds. 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 lost expression and your clothes- so different from their own- 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. A hefty laptop may be handed to you, with words of a ‘network’ used for communication. Wonder what that’s about? Then there’s the very confusing pamphlet stuffed within: "What To Expect When You're Expecting (To Turn Into A Monster)”. They may direct you to an organisation known as the Lighthouse, their members most prominently found at the 38-8 apartments and the Lighthouse Church. Or perhaps, if you're injured, they'll refer you to the Crowe Clinic instead. Unfortunately, the directions you're given are so very complicated that you lose your way in the streets after two left turns, a right and a left at the soup kitchen.
Take care when asking for more help. 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
Now that you've found a moment of peace, you open up the mysterious device that's been handed to you. Perhaps you'll recognize it as some sort of laptop, albeit an old and clunky one. Or perhaps you'll be astounded by this curious feat of technology, which is unlike anything you've ever seen before. Regardless, the moment the lid is propped open to reveal the screen and the keyboard within, you gain your first glimpse of the network.
Perhaps you'll want to choose a username and write your very first message, posing the pressing question that's on your mind at this very moment. The lettered buttons click and clack awkwardly beneath your fingertips as you type.
However, you may instead want to respond to today's most popular message.
WELCOME TO RSDOS. PRESS F1 TO COMPOSE POST. *** TODAY’S TOP POST *** 018.07.154.55 <JUSTSOMEGUY> Let's play Two Truths, One Lie! It's real easy! You just post three statements about yourself, and the rest of us have to guess the lie. It'll be fun! And you get to be a liar liar without your pants catching fire for a bit. |
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.
<bonezone>
No accounting for taste.
[This is a joke at everyone's expense!]
I don't intend to antagonize you. Any more than I intend to antagonize anyone. But none of these people can hope to understand what you mean when you say you've spoken to God.
<sanctumreverentia>
[shameless. but true.]
nevertheless that is part of the game. i know they are far from your area of expertise, especially party games, so i'm happy to explain:
two truths and one lie is a social icebreaker game wherein you are given a framework to begin conversations and share facts about yourself. you make it more interesting by stretching the bounds a bit, shaping your phrasing to your audience, hiding your lie in a technical truth or vice versa. for example, my "lie" is 2, but the statement is entirely true save one qualifier of "sole heir." similarly, 3 is only technically true but not wholly, as the audience here has a different association with the concept of devouring than we do. and "meeting god" sounds like an obvious lie to the unimaginative. good bait for idiots.
obviously if i were at home i might be playing a bit more close to the chest, as it were, no one ought to give away blackmail material for free. the stakes here are much lower and i'm able to have a bit more fun.
i'd gladly play a round with you off the record, sometime. :)
<bonezone>
[Why is Ianthe so uniquely fucking frustrating—]
Those who would believe you about the third one still wouldn't understand. It's a waste of time even making it a topic of discussion. Don't bring Him into this.
And I don't want to play with you. I don't have any interesting secrets.
[Two lies. She's cheating.]
<sanctumreverentia>
[why a nun. why did she fall for a nun, of anyone in the universe. this is hilarious and also so, so stupid. corona would be losing her mind watching this play out.]
i really don't think he would disapprove.
[because he is also a loser and a desperate narcissist, but if she says that harrow really might get angry with her, and ianthe is having fun with this little game subset.]
i truly don't believe that. you needn't tell me anything terribly scandalous, i'd still be interested. i know next to nothing about your House. and i'd enjoy talking with you without the looming threat of the Saint of Duty or god forbid another tedious family dinner over our heads.
<bonezone>
Obviously.
[What God thinks is sometimes irrelevant because he is a loser and a desperate narcissist. Things Harrow thinks in the subterranean layers of her brain.]
[Fuck, though, this is a thing. She has to actually talk with Ianthe. No Canaan House, no Saints, no God. How do you even do that? She could talk to Gideon but that was because Gideon never stopped talking. To Palamedes, but he's odd. And even then, she didn't say much.]
[Help.]
I'm not a good conversationalist. And you [always complain] lose interest when I mention anything related to my House. It seems to bore you. So we circle back around to me being a poor conversationalist.
[There's a whiff of panic in that text, if Ianthe sniffs.]
<sanctumreverentia> cw: emeto
[namely: Ianthe's jaw would lock up, or Harrow would have a seizure, vomit on God's floor and black out. really quite difficult to talk about her past when her past had a massive Gideon-shaped hole in it that was forbidden to even think about. it made conversations feel more like trying to lead a blindfolded Harrow through an obstacle course.
but that isn't really the point, is it. the point, she's fairly sure, is that Harrow is nervous. which is curious and charming, because really, if Harrow being weird and bad at talking was enough to make Ianthe lose interest she would have long ago.]
how about this: the next time we really talk i promise to be exceedingly patient and hold side commentary as much as possible. it's only fair to bring you up to speed, after all - you can't be blamed for not speaking well when you've had little to no practice, whereas it's one of my core skills.
<bonezone>
[Ianthe, on the other hand, is deeply problematic. Right now she's especially so, because Harrow is pretty sure she's telling the truth, and Ianthe being wholly genuine makes her skin crawl. She's painfully aware that her fellow Lyctor is the only lifeline she has here, and—]
[It's tempting, isn't it. To be able to actually talk.]
You really want to do this. [As though it's some monumental task — well, to Harrow, it is.] Then I will try. But I really can't promise anything interesting. Nothing happens in the Ninth House. That is very much the point.
<sanctumreverentia>
[god. how much more direct does she need to be?]
and please do believe me when i say that is precisely what i expect. your miserable ice rock has quite a lot of sordid rumors about it, but they differ wildly enough that they're clearly all lies. it will be refreshing to speak to someone who knows what they're talking about and isn't simply trying to be the most interesting person in the room.
<bonezone>
[That is helpful to know, though. And it makes sense. She has no firsthand experience with Third House that doesn't come from Ianthe herself or Coronabeth and Naberius, but a lifetime of being surrounded by people who want to be the most interesting person in the room both tracks and sounds miserable.]
You've nothing to worry about. I won't be competing for that title. If anything, I'll make you look more interesting by comparison.
Is the truth that rare, on Third?
<sanctumreverentia>
yes, obviously.
do you think i've put this level of strategic thought into a conversation game simply because it's fun?
this has been my entire life. it's very tiring.
[this is the closest she's going to get to self-pity or revealing any real emotions on this public post. they can have sharing time later, if either of them can stand it.]
<bonezone>
[Harrow, at the very least, registers the vulnerability, sliver though it is. Even through the veil of dry humor that Ianthe always hides behind, it's clear that this is adjacent to an offering. One she has no desire to exploit.]
I believe things may be different here.
[It's awkward, but it's meant to be reassuring. Comforting, maybe? Hopeful. She's not familiar with any of these things, but it does sound tiring. This is what she has to say that doesn't come from a place of pity. If nothing else, Ianthe would hate pity more than she does. And she's had it easy, comparatively. For most of her life, the only one lying has been her.]