♥ August Test Drive Meme

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August Test Drive Meme
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As Achtom and Ohnir flow into each other, the skies are still gorgeously blue and dotted with high fluffy clouds that never seem to threaten rain - so long as the weather stays controlled. Businesses are picking back up, the natives starting to cater once again to flesh-bodied people with varied amounts of success. The VR cafes are featuring more helmets so even more people can play along with the ever expanding selection of games. Overall, it seems like Havenwell is quite the peaceful city.

But there are still some issues to be had...

---

❥ PROMPT I: Where's the Pied Piper?

All Achtom, the residents have been dealing with things in characters' houses seemingly moving of their own volition to other parts of the house and going temporarily missing, returning chewed upon by the mice that have overtaken Havenwell. By the time the new wave of arrivals come, the worst of it is over, but there are still some pesky little temple familiars running about the city!

The noises at night aren't as terrible as they once had been, but the squeaking and chattering in the walls and ceiling is still noticeable. It's still difficult to sleep at night for all the noise throughout the long night hours. Trying to find the source is a surefire way to drive yourself mad, but it seems that sleeping in the same bed with another person makes it a little easier to bear, especially if you hold hands or touch throughout the night.

Pink and purple rodents of various sizes from panda mouse tiny to chihuahua-sized rats are still popping up all over the city. It seems the only place they aren't is where they're supposed to be - Ainea's temple - and that's a big problem. While many have been returned thanks to the offworlders' efforts, Ainea's temple priests are still out in the city, begging residents both robotic and flesh to peacefully and carefully capture the creatures and return them home to the temple. They pass out soft woven reed baskets to any who agree and thank all participants heartily for their help.

❥ PROMPT II: We Didn't Start This Fire

Throughout the month, pockets of the city experience magnificent dry lightning storms. Before each onset of the storm, an immense clap of thunder booms across the entire city like a siren and the natives hold their figurative breaths until the first strike rains down. A peal of lightning, searing hot, strikes the ground or hits the spires of nearby buildings, cracking stone and leaving nasty burn marks behind. Each storm is only 4 to 5 minutes in length before they suddenly disappear again, but in those few minutes chaos reigns. For anyone unlucky enough to get caught amid one of these storms, take cover! Residents throw open doors and push people inside, even shielding the offworlders with their own bodies if necessary to keep them from getting harmed.

When the lightning and its sonorous booms pass, residents scurry out to repair the damage. They'll be asking nearby offworlders to help as well with patching the stonework or removing broken debris. Most importantly, they put out a call for help in putting out fires that spring up after each storm. Their metal bodies can't withstand the heat for long without melting and the water is dangerous to their circuitry. After the fires are put out and the damage repaired, on occasion, residents will ask for the somber help of pulling a native robot unlucky enough to take a direct hit from the lightning to a local repair shop. Strangely, the natives don't seem sad when their friends and family can't be repaired, and instead start gathering up objects from home to take with them to the temples along with the bodies. When asked, they say it's to pray for a rebirth and go on their way.

❥ PROMPT III: Let's Play the Friend Connection

With all the craziness going on, some people might just want a distraction. A lot of Havenwell's natives certainly seem to think so. Despite everything, the Entertainment District is as bustling as ever and this month the offering is to participate with a friend or group of friends to play a game called: Friend Connection. Rather than the usual plug in and sit configuration, this time the VR cafes have been reorganized into 3 meter by 3 meter square pads with no chairs or furniture available. Players plug in or put their helmets on and they're instantly transported to a garish neon-lighted stage with multicolored spotlights that show a floating, legless robot with a rainbow bowtie and a magnificent mustache. The robot's LED face lights up into the approximation of the :D emote and then a disembodied voice comes from speakers overhead:

"Hail, well met, and welcome to the hottest game show around: Friend Connection! As the studio audience already knows, this game is simple! You and your new friends compete to complete more challenges than the other hidden team. The more fabulously you and your team completes each task, the more points you'll be awarded. At the end of the game, the team with the most tasks cleared and the highest point value will be declared the winners and take home some fabulous prizes. On today's team is..."

And the robotic host waves an arm to a scoreboard behind it, showing your names. The heading "Other Team" has ???? underneath it and a list of challenges is revealed along with a burst of applause. The list reads:

1. Play Twister until someone falls! The longer you go, the more points you win!
   
2. Help each other do a handstand! The Wheelbarrow is acceptable too.
   
3. Recreate your favorite scene from a romantic movie. Take, for example, That Scene from the hit movie, Skytanic! Or hum along to this song as you and your friend make some pottery together.
   
4. Create a complicated Best Friend Handshake consisting of more than 5 moves and do it together 3 times without messing up!
   
5. Answer trivia questions about each other and your worlds while holding hands and staring into each other's eyes. The more questions you can answer, the higher your points!
   
6. Do a trust fall into your friend's arms. The higher or further you fall, the more points you'll earn.
   
7. Play two truths and a lie with your friend. If you can guess correctly, you'll earn points for your team!

Are you ready, contestants? You have 20 minutes. Good luck!

At the end of the game, the characters are declared the winners by a slim and, naturally, exciting margin of just one point! And their fabulous prize......? The friendship they earned along the way! Congratulations, players! And don't worry, when the game ends, you'll be in the exact weird position you were last in as the helmets turn off. Hopefully you aren't still in those weird Twister positions because everyone can and has been able to see you. Yup, the entire time.

❥ PROMPT IV: Comic Logic

Although Achtom is waning and Ohnir beginning, Diacht's influence is still going strong. Throughout their day as they go about their daily routines, helping people out or trying to find their missing items, the natives stop looking at them and start looking above their heads. In fact, as characters meet one another, their attention may also be drawn vertically above their companion because floating above every offworlder's head is a faint white cloud. Whenever they move, the cloud moves too. Attempts to dispel it by magic or physical means does nothing and it seems like you can't touch it at all.

It's annoying isn't it? Or maybe you're feeling quite curious about this phenomenon? Or maybe it scares you? Whatever you're feeling or thinking, it shows up in that cloud clear as day. It's not every thought or feeling that shows and attempts to control what appears fails, but you're now broadcasting your innermost self to the world.

For a time at least. Smart characters might notice that after prolonged physical contact with another character, the cloud fades away and stays away for an undetermined amount of time. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's a day, sometimes it's only 5 minutes, and then it begins to reform again. Whatever it is, it's here to stay, so good luck keeping your secret inner workings, well, secret.

❥ PROMPT V: Buddy System

With all the changes going on, it might be hard to be a new arrival to Havenwell. The natives understand! Sort of. When new arrivals begin to appear at the temples, receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, 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, "Here's your guide to Havenwell! It's dangerous to go alone, so be buddies!" 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!

---

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 September 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 August 30, 2019 at 10:00PM EST and our applications will run from September 2, 2019 to September 9, 2019 from 10:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST.

♥ Taken Characters ♥ Reservations ♥ Applications ♥

Comments

[unsunderworld]

"A semblance of peace requires the conquerer to treat the conquered with dignity, and the conquered to let bygones be bygones," he says, with tiredness and faint amusement. They're words he never expected would apply to himself in such a way, but here they are.

Perhaps not the answer she's looking for, but if she wants more details, she'll have to be more specific.

[astralera]

"I did not conquer you." Era knows he is merely echoing words he told her not so long ago, yet it rubs her the wrong way all the same. "I killed you."

She grows noticeably tense, shoulders raising, until she moves a hand to stroke the impossibly soft fur of her dream guide and immediately relaxes.

"I had no desire for it the first time, and that has not changed. But what we were and what we are... Are they different now?"

There were in opposition of each other, beginning as enemies, then shifting into unlikely allies of a sort. Then they drifted back into their roles as hero and villain. Now, Era doesn't know where they stand.

[unsunderworld]

"The most definite form of conquest, arguably," he replies.

"My heart's desire is the same, and always will be. But I bear you no more ill will than I did before." He serves Zodiark, and death will not release him from that service. In that regard, nothing about him has changed.

The same cannot be said of her, as even then it was apparent. Now that he can see it without the distraction of battle... "You are the one who has changed, hero. I am far too old for it."

[astralera]

"So enough ill will to all but assure I'd turn into an Eater?" She cannot forget the way he shot the Exarch, effectively destroying the only chance of salvation she had. In the end things worked out for the better, with both herself and the Exarch alive, but not without a great deal of unnecessary suffering.

It is the weasel that tenses this time at the unwelcome recollections, and no amount of gentle stroking soothes it. Era continues giving it absentminded affection regardless.

"Too old for it, or too unsundered for it?"

For all that many consider her to be a dimwitted adventurer she isn't so dimwitted as to miss the shift within herself. She is different, and yet still the same. Arguably she feels more like herself than ever before, even when struck by feelings of déjà-vu she knows does not stem from her own experiences.

"I am different but have not changed, Emet-Selch."

[unsunderworld]

"That was no ill will at all," he says. "Had you failed to contain the Light, you would have become a monster without parallel, ensuring the Rejoining of the First and removing the obstacle you pose to all others in one move."

Tactically, there was literally no other move he could have made. And if he is to betray, then he will at least do it with unforgettable style.

"And you couldn't make it easy, and so here we are," he says with something like a smile. It fades quickly at her next question, and that is all the response she gets to it.

"You have not changed," he agrees, with an exhale not quite a sigh. "You are simply more yourself."

[astralera]

"How can you—" She begins to ask, voice beginning to raise and waver. She cuts herself off, shaking her head. This isn't something she wants to think about right now (or ever), but she can't stop thinking about it. How could anyone wish that upon another and mean no ill will?

Era gets up from the table, not looking at the Ascian. What else could she have expected from such obtuse beings?

The storm seems to have passed, and she could go back outside if she wished to. Physical exertion would be good, not that this world truly offers her anything in that regard. Her tail thrashes behind her as the rest of her remains otherwise motionless.

She abandons Emet-Selch and her dream guide both, walking stiffly to the opposite corner of the room. She takes a seat in the relative darkness, knees pulled to her chest, held in place by her arms wrapped around them. Phantom pain jolts through her mind as it continues drifting back to that agony she suffered. He had seemed so delighted by the thought of it, and then infuriated when she managed to survive. She can't understand it.

Why does she feel so betrayed? They were never truly friends, nor allies. He is an Ascian. It was to be expected. So why did she expect better of him?

Era presses her forehead to her knees, blocking out any ambient light, and tries to ignore the memory of pain. Tries to ignore her current situation. Tries to tuck all of this confusion and conflict away, never to touch it again.

Her dream guide rises to its feet, though doesn't make a move to follow her. It stares at her intently, watching, then moves a bit closer to Emet-Selch and settles back down. The wispy blue left behind by its steps dissipates within a few seconds, though its golden aura remains.

[unsunderworld]

He makes no move to stop her or explain himself. Instead he just watches as she goes, eyes following her as she curls up, before finally turning his attention to the creature on the table.

"What? I don't regret either the time spent seeing if she would prove worthy, nor the actions taken when her failure seemed imminent. I'd have done the same to anyone else."

Don't judge him, strange little weasel. He has his priorities and one mortal, no matter who she is, cannot get in the way of that.

"Besides, she cheated."

[astralera]

The weasel remains silent for a long, long moment.

{ But she's not just anyone else, however much you deny it, } it says directly to his mind, voice light and androgynous; not unlike that of an Amaurotine. { And using all available resources to succeed is not cheating, especially if there were no rules to begin with. You were just too willfully blind to see the path that was open to her. }

It continues to keep its gaze on its summoner, watching as she shivers in the darkness, struggling to keep herself afloat in a sea of emotions that she tries so hard to pretend doesn't exist. It wishes to dart over to her, crawl into her arms and comfort her, but knows its mobility is still limited for the time being.

[unsunderworld]

"It was a challenge to the best the seven times rejoined Source had to offer," he counters. "Picking up another shard at the eleventh hour violates the spirit of the thing, even if no rules were stated."

And yet there's something almost pleased about the way he says it. "Not that cheating isn't a valid path to success, of course."

[astralera]

{ It's not cheating to aid oneself. }

There is much and more it could say, but Emet-Selch is not Era, and it doesn't feel inclined to elaborate on that particular subject. It shifts to stare up at the Ascian's face, gold-tinted eyes meeting gold.

{ I'm Hemera's dream guide, Ardbert. }

[unsunderworld]

And that -

In anyone else, there would be a catching of breath, a hesitation.

Emet-Selch only lifts his eyebrows and looks back over at Era. "I'm surprised she would recall the name," is all he says.

[astralera]

Ardbert settles back down, curled up on the hard surface of the table and returning its attention to Era. From a distance she seems to be regaining her composure, slowing piecing herself back together.

{ She doesn't, } it says simply. { The mind is not always privy to the soul. }

[unsunderworld]

"...True enough."

He shifts to watch her with one hand propping up his chin, the other left on the tabletop.

"And dreams often reveal that which we hide from ourselves."

[astralera]

{ She is my charge; I'm meant to protect her. I guide her to safer paths where I can. }

It watches as she unfurls herself. From their connection it knows she is readying herself to return, however reluctantly. She is wrung so tight she feels drained; hollowed out like a gourd. Something Ardbert will need to keep an eye on while it's able to.

{ Are you a safer path, Hades? }

[unsunderworld]

He gives the question the consideration it is due, just for a moment.

"It is perhaps best to say that I am a known one. But I mean her no harm outside of that which my god's will requires of me, and for the moment I have more curiosity about this situation than anything else."

Given the chance to return, he would take it. Given the chance to keep her here, where she could not get between Elidibus and the remaining Rejoinings, he would take it. Anything else is an unknown even to him.

[astralera]

{ Then for now I'll consider you an ally, } it declares as Era finally approaches, each of her steps carefully weighed. When she sits down again she is still stiff and uncomfortable, but at least the colour has returned to her face.

Era holds her arm out for Ardbert to climb up, and it does so with a graceful ease despite the notable limp. It curls itself around her neck, instantly soothing her.

"Who were you speaking to?"

[unsunderworld]

"Your newfound guardian, who else?" he responds, settling back in his seat with a casualness that seems almost pointed to offset her stiffness. "I'm not wont to talk to myself; there's hardly anything new to say."

[astralera]

Her brows knit together, confused. "I did not realize they could speak to others."

[unsunderworld]

He shrugs. "A lack of inclination, perhaps. I shall take the honor of being the first as seriously as it deserves."

[astralera]

"I couldn't say if it is an honour, as they have not encountered more than two others in all the time I've had them." Era is quick to comment, and Ardbert is even quicker to add:

{ You kept me summoned because you were lonely, and your Carbuncle would not listen anymore, } they say. { I've stayed by your side because you kept hiding yourself away from everyone else. }

Her lips thin and she turns her head to the side, away from Emet-Selch and away from her dream guide's face at her chin. She cannot deny what they've said, though would have preferred they say it in private. Her arms cross, and it's clear enough that she's displeased.

"What was I supposed to do? I did not fit in."

[unsunderworld]

"The hero of Source and shard both, unable to fit in? Do say it isn't so." At least that faint sarcastic lilt hasn't changed much. "I can't imagine making friends ever having been a problem for you."

[astralera]

"It is hard to fit in when most everyone is a Hyur, never knowing anything but other Hyur, and with no aether or magic to speak of," she huffs indignantly. "I grew to feel like a novelty. There was no place for me there."

[unsunderworld]

If she seeks understanding of her troubles, well, at least that much she has found in the man who feels much the same about everyone.

"I remember the days before the first Rejoining, when humanity had not yet rediscovered aether. They were, in a word, awful. But to have no aether at all..."

It's a rather disturbing notion, to him.

[astralera]

"I never had much aethersense to speak of, but the distinct lack of it from the land and a majority of its people..." A small shiver, and she wraps her arms around herself. "I do not think less of them for it, yet that doesn't mean there is not an inherent wrongness to my senses."

Era can only imagine how he might be able to relate to that... But it's nice to be able to vent to someone who might understand to some extent.

[unsunderworld]

"One grows used to it, after long enough," is all he says, and there is some trace of the bitterness there still. After long enough, one gets used to the loneliness.

"As for the rest, we were not so very different from Hyur in appearance, before the Sundering. There were those who changed their appearances with magic, but it was a form in which most were content."