TDM: JUNE/JULY

[ryslighelpers]

TDM: JUNE/JULY

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 awaken in a small room, shelves full of cleaning supplies lining the walls. A bucket stands in the corner with a mop balanced carefully inside. How you came to be in this broom closet of sorts, you have no idea. You sure feel sore and hungry, though. Disoriented, you stagger to your feet and reach for the door handle. It responds perfectly to your touch and a second later, you take your steps into freedom.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think you’d walked into 1980s America: neon clothing and chunky plastic jewelry flash eye-searingly in one display window, an advertisement for “The Invention that Broke the Sound Barrier: The All-New Walkman Portable Cassette Player!” fills another. Shops all around peddle fashion from the 1950s to the 1980s, along with electronics and toys. In the food court, with its cheap plastic seating, one will find fries, sodas and even festival-type goods like homemade pastries. Hotdog weenies roll smoothly on a grill. That food sure looks good right now, doesn't it? Unfortunately, the shopkeepers expect you to pay in a strange currency called “solars”. Will you pull an Aladdin and steal a loaf of bread, or will you attempt to appeal to the proprietors' pity?

Take care not to draw attention to yourself, though! Mannequins wearing a variety of 80s fashion patrol the hallways with twitchy, stiff movements. To those from more tech-savvy worlds, they may appear to be androids. Every so often, a very tinny, flat voice can be heard emitting from them–"SAFETY FIRST!" As you hurry away, their heads swivel around completely to continue tracking you, despite their lack of eyes.

And if you opted to steal? A good dozen of them will turn on you in an instant, hunting you down across the mall with far more speed than anyone would've expected them to employ. Maybe you can hide in that ballpit. Or the fountain. Or up the escalators, go go go!

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> Which is the better pet, a fur-bearing trout or a Kulen parasite? Or a timeloop groundhog? Ooh or maybe one of those fish with the big saw blades? C'mon, we've got so many cool animals here! Discuss!

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

[oleaeuropaea]

[Considering Basil's overall appearance, the fangs don't make Vash any more or less apprehensive about everything. He's always had a good sense for these kinds of things, he liked to think, even if his overall idealism tended to win out over common sense. And right now, that gut feeling was telling him that Basil didn't mean any arm, sharp teeth or no.

In a way, he almost reminds him of Tonis. Or at least what Tonis should have grown up to be.

Right, stopping that train of thought before it gets too far.]

Pleasure's all mine, Basil. I really appreciate you helping me get my head on straight.

[polarvoid]

I-it's nothing really...I'm just telling you what anyone else would.

[Basil...has not told Vash about the more grisly parts of Ryslig, which Komaeda and others were quick to inform him of because they knew he'd have to learn sooner or later, and better from them than someone else. But it's...not so easy, for Basil.

He knows he should...but he isn't. At least not unless he's asked about it explicitly.]

If...you do have any questions about anything else, though, I can try to answer them.

[oleaeuropaea]

Feel like I'm more full of questions than answers at this point, but... wouldn't know where to begin!

[He has, for better or for worse, drawn his own conclusions about his situation. From what limited knowledge Vash has, whatever so-called God was in charge of this place had chosen to populate her world with monsters. It would explain those he had seen in his periphery, as well as Basil's own appearance.

And while he won't say as much out loud, it would also explain his own presence there. Just because he didn't outwardly appear as such, didn't mean that there wasn't something more sinister locked within his genetic code.]

Guess I'm correct in assuming you haven't heard of No Man's Land, right?

[polarvoid]

[No Man's Land? ...he couldn't mean the Wastelands, could he? Certainly not, if he's only been here for a little while...

So Basil hums, tapping his claws together.]

I don't think so...is that where you're from?

[oleaeuropaea]

Mmmore or less, yeah.

[There's a little hesitation when he speaks, a faint pinch of the brows, before he gives a rapid nod. Almost as if he's trying to convince himself of this information.]

So, not just pulling people from the same place, but from places all over. That makes sense.

[It doesn't make any sense, actually. But Vash is deliberately trying to avoid thinking about how little sense it makes by applying his own form of sense. Which... gives him a headache, the longer he thinks about it. Oops!]

What about you?

[polarvoid]

[Basil nods, once more tapping his little red claws together.]

I'm from Earth. [Said carefully, because as far as he knows there could be a million different variations of "Earth" out there.] The town where I live is called Faraway Town. It's just...a normal city, with normal people. No monsters, or magic...

[No, the horrors manifest themselves in much more...real ways.]

[oleaeuropaea]

It sounds nice. Pleasant.

[It should speak to their drastically different backgrounds, that normal itself sounds like a fantastical idea. Yet even so, it's the exact kind of town Vash thinks he would have wanted to grow up in. Certainly better than the desert towns that dotted No Man's Land.]

Do you miss it?

[polarvoid]

[Basil...cannot work up an answer to that as quickly as he'd like. Because yes, he DOES miss home, desperately. He misses his grandmother, and Polly, and his garden...but there's a lot about home he doesn't want to go back to. The struggles of living there, the tension in the town...the treatement he suffers, it's all stuff he'd much rather bury and not think about.

But that isn't something he's going to unpack in front of a stranger. Fibbing is easier, at least when the broad strokes of his answer would more or less stay the same.]

I do. It can be...really hard, living here.

[oleaeuropaea]

I can imagine.

[Vash kneels down, positioning himself so that he's more on Basil's level. The smile he offers is meant to be a reassuring one. He knows a thing or two about living in uncomfortable places, after all. And so he's glad to offer some small bit of comfort.]

Know it probably doesn't mean much, comin' from a guy you've just met — and a newcomer at that. But if you ever need something, or just someone to talk to, I'm happy to help.

[polarvoid]

[Vash may be new, but he already reminds Basil of a few people who have shouldered their way into his life already. Komaeda, Fugo, literally everyone at the Palazzo. They all care about him in a way he never thought would be possible, or deserved.

He can tell Vash is a good person. He hopes that he stays a good person, because Ryslig changes you. It doesn't take long, either.]

...thank you. It...it means a lot, actually.

[oleaeuropaea]

Aw, well. I'm glad to offer it. [Since he's on Basil's level already, he'll just go ahead and reach out. A little tousle to the top of his head certainly can't hurt.] In any case, I should be thanking you. You already got my head on straighter than it was. Feel like I can take on anything at this point.

[And at that, he stands up straight with his chest puffed out. He's the picture of confidence and everything.]

[polarvoid]

[Oh no...the tousle is sweet, and it makes Basil giggle, his whiskers twitching. He doesn't have hair anymore, so sometimes he worries about how uncomfortable his scales must feel...but at the very least, the ones that slope down his head and back are soft enough. They're not meant to be actual armor after all; more like an extension of his body than anything.]

Do you really mean that?

[He did that? He was able to encourage someone as optimistic as Vash?

It makes Basil...happy, knowing that.]