hugme_mes | ♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

Entry tags:

♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

animated gif of a group of cars playing soccer

October (Lasohm) Test Drive Meme
Premise ♥ Setting ♥ Rules ♥ FAQ ♥ Mod Contact

Havenwell is normally a beautiful city - all tall spires and pure white stone glistening with gold against a blue sky. Now, it's still quite lovely, but it's marred. The wall that surrounds the city has a large glimmering hole broken through the stone and the buildings are missing bits and pieces here and there. The city is still reeling from the aftermath of its siege when a new set of souls are drawn to its shore. Good luck, new arrivals; and please excuse all the dust.

two fingers together with smiling faces drawn on

❥ PROMPT I: Buddy System

With all the changes and the fear of a secondary attack lingering, the natives are a lot more protective of their newest arrivals. When new characters begin to appear at the temples, they receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, and a warning to stay away from the walls. Then they get taken to the front of the temple by a helpful robotic priest. Rather than turn the newcomers loose right away, they pull someone seemingly at random off the street and push the two people together with a cheerful, "It's dangerous to go alone, so please show our newest resident around. Please be buddies!" They wait until they're certain the pair is going to be moving off together before going back inside.

They try to place a new arrival with one of those who previously arrived, but who can keep track of all that, right? Characters may find themselves thrown together with an actual veteran or with another new arrival who only came here a day or even just an hour before them! Good luck helping each other out, offworlders, and don't lose your buddy!

❥ PROMPT II: The Havenwell Archives

Lasohm is another month that belongs to Ohma and after such a vicious attack, a small group of citizens decide that it might be great for the offworlders to help with something important to the feline god. These citizens are marked with a sash with the sign of a quill on it, a decidedly antique symbol considering how technologically advanced the people are. They hand out fliers to any who will take them, offering a small amount of Dora in compensation to any who will help the Havenwell Archives repair, catalogue, and restore any books damaged by the attack.

The Archives is a large building in the south and its doors, which have been sealed shut until now, are slightly ajar, allowing people entry. Head to the Archives and you'll be greeted by one of a handful of robotic citizens, all wearing that quill-emblazoned sash, and directed to a small room where you and other offworlders are put to the task of reassembling history texts that have fallen into disrepair or reviewing work that earlier offworlders completed, fixing any glitches that might occur in the text. Most of the writing is illegible, but it seems that these books are important to the Archives for more than just the information contained within. As you work, you might notice that talking and sharing information about yourself or engaging in physical contact near these books with the other people in your room makes the text on your pages a little more legible, a little easier to read and understand, and easier to fix.

❥ PROMPT III: Virtual Research

a virtual first-person view of hands reeling in a fishing rod

After the attack, every part of the city is on repair duty and the means the Entertainment District as well. As new arrivals wander the city, they might be called into one of the numerous Virtual Reality cafes. These cafes vary in layout, but most have areas for the natives to plug directly into the machines and other areas which have older looking virtual reality helmets that allow flesh bodied people experience the games. For those who need assistance with their sensory inputs, basic options like audio descriptions of visual scenes, enhanced audio and descriptive speech, closed captions, and crude mobility chairs are available. A handful of cafes have other options like direct visual or audio cortex stimulation to simulate vision or hearing, or suspension tanks to allow simulated movement, but these are currently unavailable due to damage.

All of these facilities are, unfortunately, under repair. The direct plug-in systems are easier for the robot natives to fix because they can do the most important part of it - testing - by themselves. But for the helmets and other interface systems, they need your help. Naturally, they'll pay you for the work, but they need the offworlders to play the available games and record any areas where they find glitches. Playing with a partner increases your chances of finding and fixing any issues, so feel free to log in for free for once and test any of the following games:

Big Bass Fishing

A (un)Familiar Experience

Robot Crossing

Pick and harvest as many Aellyn vegetables and fruits as you can before the timer runs out! The more you pick, the better your score. Work together with your partner to clear the field in any way you can. Strangely, once you finish clearing a tree or a field row of their bounty, they seem to magically refill when you turn your back. Strangely, when the timer runs out? It flashes 00:00 and the game...doesn't? Stop? In fact, the fruits and vegetables just keep multiplying and multiplying and if you don't hurry up you might just get buried in them all!
With a partner, use the giant slingshot to launch comically large fruits into a garden patch of other colored fruits. Match a line of 3 or more similarly shaped fruits to clear it from the field. The more fruits you can clear, the higher your score - aka welcome to Fruit Crush. Stack lines of 6 or more to get shining clear diamond fruits that clear the entire row and snag yourself some bonus points. Or they should, but whenever you clear away a matching set, the fruits explode, sending fruit bits and juice everywhere - most notably on you and your partner. Still, the game is going on and it looks like it won't stop until you finish, so good thing it's all a computer game, right? Sure feels real though - reeeeeeally sticky.
You and your partner(s) are given a magical golden pumpkin and it's your job to grow it into the largest pumpkin possible. Why? There's a county fair of course and the largest pumpkin wins! But how do you grow this pumpkin? Well, for whatever reason? This pumpkin is already the size of a grizzly bear and it just won't stop growing! You and your partner better find a way to stop it from growing out of control or you might get (virtually) crushed! You could do a song and dance routine together to touch the pumpkin's soul to teach it moderation or calm its insane vegetable puberty. You could hold hands and share stories and entertain the pumpkin until it feels satisfied that it's grown enough. You could just hack and slash at it in an attempt to reduce its unwieldy bulk. The possibilities are endless and so is the pumpkin's growth, so you better hurry!

Have fun however you like with the setting! Make a network post, make up other prompts based on the general setting, go wild. Havenwell is your oyster.

This TDM is for the November application round. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread below. The reservation round begins on October 30, 2019 at 10:00PM EST and our applications will run from November 2, 2019 to November 9, 2019 from 10:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST.

♥ Taken Characters ♥ Reservations ♥ Applications ♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In that case, [ Here, she takes a step closer to him. Just a step, all the while keeping their joined hands between them. ] to see this through the years, your determination to help others ...is beautiful. [ From there, she lifts his grasp up further; their hands, clasped, now rest between them at chest-level. ]

Perhaps that will be the sort of piece you'll leave behind in this world, [ Her voice is soft, her countenance, respectful as she raises her gaze to meet his. She did say "piece", as it calls back to her suggestion earlier. ] ...by inspiring others to do the same.

[ Finally, using both of their hands, she presses that back of his hand into to his chest, over his heart. Coming full circle, she finishes: ]

And as I've said... It's all in here.

[ He feels the press of their hands against his chest, and his eyes never leave her face, on which a gentle smile sits. Pyra, with or without her memories, strives to see the best in people still.

Determination in its purest form will always sound beautiful. It's when applied to reality that the same determination can take a turn for the ugly. She hasn't seen the lengths to which he'd go—how cold his heart beneath their hands can turn, given a reason.

He would call her foolish, if he didn't know that she's aware of just how much destruction humanity can unleash upon the world. She only chooses to keep her hopes high. Though his hand remains in place, his eyes flit to the crystal on her body and back to her face. That doesn't change the fact that her faith is misplaced. He cranes his neck toward the city centers. ]

Time waits for none. Let us be on our way.

[ She keeps their hands pressed to his chest, and although her hand is separated by his hand and multiple layers of his clothes, she knows that his heart still beats. How lovely is that, to have a beating heart, for him to be alive and have come to this entirely different world. She wishes she could tell him how amazed she is at him existing right now, that she's with another being who's there and well and alive--

And not at all dead like how so many for which she is responsible, wasted by her all in order to defeat her sibling. As bitter and guilt-ridden as it is to think it, losing control had served its purpose in that regard: it had granted her the power to claim victory. They were sacrifices. If she hadn't done what she had, how many more lives would have been lost? Three great Titan-continents had been wrecked prior to that battle, but how many more would have perished, if she hadn't stopped her sibling there?

Rationalizing it does not help her guilt. It only consumes her further. For the greatest destruction of all will occur, if she does not find her way back to her Father. Her purpose has not changed.

Yet here this man is-- him, and others-- brought into this world all to help it. The continents of her homeworld she can never rebuild herself, but, perhaps, here... with this touch... ]

Yes. [ She nods, and then creates some modest distance between them. Still holding his hand, albeit with a more tender grip than before, she encourages him to walk with her once more.

She smiles. ] Let's.

[ Within her mindscape, the city is recreated out of a void. With but a thought, his words are proven wrong: the shadows and light of this creation crawl to a beautiful adagio, where time eventually comes to halts. It waits. There is Pyra, there is Somnus.

There is her.

She appears on the opposite side of the reconstruction of the man, golden hair flowing behind her like wisps of rays, the only light allowed to refract in this landscape. She speaks.

Don't you think it's odd. ]

[ Pyra doesn't so much as blink, but she waits as still as the time that has stopped. Her creator seems to have noticed something that has escaped her...

...Escaped her, perhaps, because she had been so caught up in her hope.

She remains patient for the other to continue. ]

[ The woman comes around to the front, settling a hand upon her hip.

She looks over the man, up, down... up, and takes a step away, turning her back. She continues walking down the path they are heading, waving a hand casually.

The cautionary tone in her voice, however, is abundantly clear.

He's given his name, but he hasn't even bothered to ask for ours yet. ]

Edited 2019-10-28 03:31 (UTC)

[ Ah.

The mindscape dismantles, time resumes. She's left walking with him, hand in hand. ]

Mm, Somnus?

[ Lightly. ]

May I ask you a question?

[ How easily she says his name now. This is better, he thinks, for he is no king here and she stands above, not below, him.

His steps fall in line with hers when she seeks permission for an inquiry. Looking over his shoulder, oblivious to Mythra's warning to her other self, Somnus now plays the part of Pyra and waits for her to continue. ]

[ In the same tone as before, she gives him a curious, almost hopeful glance. There is patience in her gaze as well. ]

Would you say you are a trusting person?

[ No. Not particularly. There was a reason he only ever kept the company of his sworn Shield on most days when he was alive, among other examples. What's more curious is her reason for asking. ]

My actions are not dictated by trust.

Oh...?

[ Encouragingly, ] What are they dictated by?

By necessity. I do what I must.

[ Following that: ]

Is... the opposite true? [ She cants her head one way, still looking at him. ] Such as the things you do not do, it's because you've deemed them unnecessary?

[ Somnus watches her, searching her face while she leads him on some sort of a chase. In other words, he did not do something since they started talking. It takes a moment before he faces the street in front of them.

Thinking back, there was something he neglected to do. And it was deliberate. ]

You wonder why I do not ask your name.

[ Ah. He's figured it out.

She looks at him expectantly, but not unkindly. ] Mm.

[ WELL? Does he have an explanation? Because she would like to hear it instead of assuming anything. The question had ultimately been in good faith: asking about trust, for surely a trusting person might forget to even ask for someone's name before agreeing to room with them. ]

[ Pyra is merciful, but she is not unintelligent. She is capable of suspicion and right to suspect his refusal to ask for her name.

Truthfully, it was a clumsy move on his part. To ask would be a simple lie, far simpler than all the other lies he'd spun to keep the kingdom afloat. He's already deceived her by maintaining this pretense: If he thought to avoid lying to a divine being, the time for that passed the moment he carried on as a stranger. Now she asks in his stead. ]

It's been some time since I found myself in new company. Names mattered little where I was.

[ Both statements are, to varying degrees, true. ]

[ Standing beside Pyra now as she looks to the man within their mindscape, she gives one directive.

Press him. ]

How so?

[ Names mattered little??? Even if they are from different worlds, anyone would be confused at that statement. ]

[ Mortal, young king, Chosen King, the Mystic—designations are given based on the prophecy. The old kings care little for individual names. ]

The dead do not speak to the living.

[ Under ordinary circumstances. ]

[ She stares, gaze measuring.

Then, closing her eyes, she fades. To sleep, then.

This will be for Pyra to handle. ]

[ Dead. Dead but here. ]

Ah—

[ That gets her to break her suspicions. Her eyed widen, her brow knits, and she seems to regard him in a different light than she had moments before.

A whisper passes through her lips, as if she’s hesitant to ask. ] For how long...?

[ If she asks, he will answer. The subject of his death is just that—a subject. It doesn't influence his affect in the slightest. ]

Millennia have passed. The gods of this world saw fit to restore my flesh.

[ Millenia.

She stops yet again, turning in surprise. ] You...

[ Her free hand lifts to her chest, fingers curling over the crystal there, heartfelt, the gesture reflecting the sincerely in her crimson eyes. Thousands of years dead, and quite possibly conscious of them. As a human, no less, when he should have had all the right to move on. The hand that hand been upon her crystal lowers to clasp over his; she is back to holding one of his is two of hers. ]

You have all of my sympathies. [ Quite frankly, she recognizes this as a personal and sensitive subject. She has the grace not to pry. ]

...As well as my hope, [ She continues quietly, gaze lowering to his hands. How ironic, that she had once thought him to be alive. ] that you have watched your world endure and... thrive throughout the years.

no subject

no subject

1/6

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

6/7 actually

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject