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crystalclods2016-11-25 06:37 pm
wearethecrystalmods) wrote in crystalclods2016-11-25 06:37 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive Meme | December-February 2016/17
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| TEST DRIVE MEME | |
| Welcome to the Cosmographia Test Drive Meme! This is a place for you to test out any characters you've been considering for the game or just to splash around in the waters and see what's right for you. Give our infopages a glance over and use the prompts below as a jumping off point! Threads from prompt A and B can be made canon for the game so long as both parties agree to it! Prompts C and D, unfortunately, cannot, as they take their cues from events and Excursions already run in Cosmographia. In short - pick a character, write up a starter and have a blast! | |
| PROMPT A - ARRIVAL | |
| You don't remember getting in this hole but you definitely remember falling out of it. You go tumbling out into the heart of a cavernous temple. Sparkling Gems suspended in bubbles float lazily about the ceiling, just a little out of reach. There's a greenish glow cast over the room by the huge crystal looming before you in the center. It's... curiously heart shaped, now you think to take a closer look at it. If you're curious enough to touch it, you'll get some basic answers about your situation... but then again, there's no guarantee you're just going to walk up to a giant weird thing in the middle of a giant weird room and touch it, right? Why not take a look around and see for yourself what kind of place this is? Perhaps you'll run into someone in the same predicament as you, or perhaps you'll run into someone who can help explain why there's a weird rock now affixed to your body? | |
| PROMPT B - THE FARMER'S MARKET | |
| It's Thursday in Waverly Bay, and that can mean only one thing: the weekly Farmer's Market is here again! The town plaza is all abuzz with activity today. Stalls not only from farmers on the outskirts of town but from crafty residents with interesting homemade items to sell, and businesses looking to attract the Market's crowd are all here! The weather's a little chilly but it's still an excellent place to spend the day, so long as you've got some money to spend. Are you shopping for a good deal on vegetables for dinner? Or perhaps you're getting a feel for the residents, having recently arrived? Or, perhaps, are you an industrious gem who's looking to set up shop? Either way, you're bound to run into somebody in this bustling, busy place. | |
| PROMPT C - INVESTIGATION | |
| Now that you're starting to get a hold of your powers, you've been sent through the warp pads on some kind of mission to Bricktown, the nearby city. As it turns out, the town is suffering from an infestation of small, bird-like creatures that have taken to nesting around town and letting out the most awful of rackets. Poofing these creatures will net you a small Gem shard. Poof as many as you can and bubble all those shards! You won't be able to do it alone, though. Maybe one of these birbs is just a bit out of reach or maybe you've not gotten a hang of your powers yet. Either way, working with your fellow Gems is the best way for you to get to the bottom of this and find where these birds are coming from! | |
| PROMPT D - COMBAT | |
Uh-oh! Looks like you've run into a monster! These critters can pop up anywhere around Waverly Bay so it doesn't really matter where you were before or what you were up to. All you know now is that you need to buckle down and beat this thing!Giant Mothwing - With broad wings that shed scales on the wind, this corrupted Gem bears a striking resemblance to a large moth or butterfly. The body between its wings is no beauty, though - it usually stays rolled into a wheel-like spiral to protect its flat, pinkish gem, but when it uncurls to attack it looks more like a worm with teeth. Yikes!You know by now that you've got some special powers just from being a Gem. Apparently, from what little you've heard, you can shapeshift into things and pull a weapon from your gem, and you have some sort of unique special power. But maybe you don't know what it is yet, or you're still not used to using it? Guess you're going to have to learn on the job. Don't leave your fellow gems hanging if you see them fighting one of these little guys either! You're going to need each other to take 'em down! | |
| PROMPT E - WILDCARD | |
| Not into any of these prompts? Thought of something more fun? Go for it! | |
Jack Boyce [aka Howlite] | OC | ota
[Boyce falls through a hole near the ceiling, one of the larger creatures to be deposited in the heart of the temple save perhaps the gems that were obviously inhuman to begin with. This gem, crashing through a field of lightly phosphorescent bubbles and onto the steps leading up to the crystal heart, is certainly human in shape, if no longer in hue. He's large, made larger by his heavy woolen sweater and the cap only just now thrown off of his dishevelled, hairy head... but the colour has been drained mostly from his face, and true to the gem now lodged, hidden, against his breastbone, a marbled line of grey and black cross his face from temple to opposite jaw. The rest of him is covered by winter-wear, which luckily has done a little to dampen his fall.
He is not prone to theatrics. Cussing quietly, but shortly, he pushes himself to hands and knees and takes this alien space in with a wary kind of uncertainty, before retrieving his hat and his footing. A silver tint colours his weathered cheekbones: embarrassment for the abrupt entrance, confusion and mortification for this unknown situation.
Usually he doesn't reach out, much. Usually he keeps himself to himself, but this is... too strange.]
What are you? Is this a dream?
[Surely you've summoned him here. He hasn't even caught on that the heart-gem is pulsing gently behind him, enigmatically setting the scene.]
B. Market
[He's had a little bit of time to cope with the massive amount of change he's had to undergo over the course of a couple of weeks. Its a begrudging change: Boyce doesn't like being intruded upon, and he still feels as though some core part of him has been invaded in some horrible way... but given the fact that apparently his life-long problems with lycanthropy are at an end, and that he's spent much of his life wrangling monsters even if he's always felt very strongly for their protection... both are helping him cope.
So is the fact that most of his compatriots share the same fate as he does. It's not a lot, but it's something... and quietly the heart of the temple pulses with its soothing magic. That helps probably more than he knows.
Currently he's avoiding the current of people milling around him at the farmer's market by towering over an eddy of human traffic, admiring some woodwork crafts, trying to look like he belongs. He's asked to have a guide show him the sights as where he's from the cart and buggy have only just been re-invented. He's not familiar with current-day technology so most of this boggles him. It's... embarrassing.]
This is nice. What is it... for?
[It's nice, but he has no idea what cribbage is, nor why someone would create a board shaped to resemble a fish to play the game.]
A!
Iiii'm human?
[She does look extremely human. Technically, she has a gem but it's placement is conveniently somewhere that her outfits nearly always cover.]
You're definitely not dreaming.
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He hasn't spotted his own leached colour. He doesn't yet know that he's in a place where he might be able to leave his past behind.]
I meant... are you in charge of this place? He's still deathly embarrassed, but there's no way he can slip away and hide to get his bearings now...
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Nope. That's Tiger Eye.
[Well, Tiger's Eye is about as close as they've got to a "leader" anyway.
She glances briefly up at the walls and ceiling even though there's no visible holes in it right now and then back to him.]
You just drop in?
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[Boyce looks skeptical, though Yang's diversion neatly curtails any questions he might have had. He huffs, trying harder to hide his confusion over her very correct guess. Either this kind of event is common, or she's very good at making astute observations that nobody ought to ever guess.]
You could say something like that... Not sure you'd believe it if I tried to explain it. You sure this isn't a dream?
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Very sure.
[She could hit him if he needs proof, but maybe let's not.]
Lemme guess. You were somewhere else, just going about your day, and then all of a sudden you found this hole, fell into it, and it dropped you here.
Right?
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What if such a fairy tale were true?
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Well, then you'd be in good company because that's how the rest of us got here.
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Pardon my language, young lady, [this he's trying to be very clear about] but I you're shitting me.
Or... if you're not... you know more about this place then you're letting on. What are these things?
[He's not been completely blind to the bubbles floating at head height and higher. In fact, he pokes one now, with enough force that the only thing that keeps it from popping is the fact that it can bounce buoyantly away, settling about five meters higher than where it started.]
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[Spoken frankly, because if she was going to be blunt here...yeeeaah, it's kinda creepy looking.
She points at the floating bubble he just prodded away.]
And you're gonna want to not do that or you'll find out the hard way.
They've got corrupted Gems inside them.
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Anyways, there's something in her blunt straight-forward attitude that leaves him coming up empty-handed for hints of bullshit, as bizarre as that feels.
He pulls a mitt from his big, calloused hand as he touches his face, as though he might find a grease mark where she's looking... but seeing his own flesh in black and white is enough to freeze him in place for a moment.
Pardon him as he turns his hand over again and again. He removes his other mitt to compare the second vein of black writ more clearly across this one. His thick brows draw further together into a bewildered scowl, until he finally looks up at the young woman again. His jaw is bunched beneath his beard, his bearing incredibly wary.]
What is this? What's been done to me?
[How does it make him a danger, how does it interact with his curse? That he won't ask; he'll never admit to a human that he's a kind of werewolf when he's known so much persecution.]
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Beats me. Didn't you look like that before you fell in here?
[Because otherwise that's a new one to her.]
inwardly screaming man here
Well... the hair. Yes. [he pushes one heavy sleeve up, revealing a muscled, swarthy forearm... but under that, the lifeless greyish white and the dark patch carry on in an organic strip.
Boyce is growing more alarmed by the second, but a mixture of a lifetime of iron-willed self-control and... well, the presence of a human staring him down keep him from lifting his sweater up. He does pull the neck hem away from his chest (along with the longjohns beneath the raw, heavy wool) and what he finds is more alarming than odd pigmentation.
His other hand pats around at the gem embedded in his chest and now his face takes on a sallow, flabbergasted thousand-yard stare.
He comes back to himself quickly and snaps his gaze to the girl.]
You're absolutely convinced that... that we're not dead, this isn't the heart of Authos?
[Why else would he have a stone-hard egg of a lump protruding from his chest, as far as he can feel? His unnaturally sallow tone is making him feel more and more sure that this is some kind of after-life.]
i am so sorry Boyce
[But she really doesn't know you, Boyce, so, you know, you could be dead. Sorry.
She points a finger at the large pulsating gem beyond them.]
But that's just the Heart Gem. And there's no Authos here.
[Beat.]
If you've got a gem on your body though, that's normal. Everybody that drops into the Temple has one.
[Whether they started with one or not.]
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Nothing about this place is making any sense to him... but Yang doesn't seem to be yanking his chain, and nobody has leapt out at him with muskets and the pointed edges of bayonets. The rock lodged against his sternum is still greatly alarming...
But he climbs the steps to the little platform, holds out his alarmingly pale hand...]
!!
[It's almost palpable, seeing all the hairs on his head and forearms stand on end, like an electric shock has gone through him. When he turns back--only part ways to Yang, his eyes are wider than they may ever have been in his grown life. He looks a little younger, if only because he's in complete overload and his face has gone all but blank. Everything's changed completely. It all makes sense... even if it doesn't make any sense at all.]
I don't just have one of these, [he finally says, facing her fully again as he beats his chest with his knuckles.] I am one. This is me? That's not right.
[For the first time, he looks visibly upset. Boyce's expressions hardens to a glare, not at Yang, but at the array of bubbled monsters floating overhead, at the circumstances he's been dumped into. Even the heavy blanket of emotional support the crystal heart is pouring out isn't enough to completely tame him.]
And these are all other people, too. Reined in, forced to not exist...
Why do you go along with this? Is it because you think you're human?
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And while she's been watching pretty impassively from the side while he copes with it, the starts of a frown crease her features the more upset he seems to get. Bby r u ok?
That accusation catches her a little off-guard though.]
They're corrupted Gems.
Something damaged them. Hurt them so that they can't reform the way they want to. Containing them like this is the only way to keep them from hurting themselves or other people.
[She's not even touching the whole "human" thing. Race relations in her own world are less than ideal enough that she knows better, although she genuinely does not consider herself a Gem, no matter what she's technically been transfigured into.]
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So is her defense of the imprisonment of what he assumes are people, not-quite humans like him. He knows they're monsters, at least from everything that's churning violently in his mind. He gets the basic gist of corruption... but it's so similar to his own curse that he can't help but feel discomfited by the parallels.
But Yang is too young to understand that, he thinks. No use in arguing.
Boyce shakes his head, turns away, looks up through the field of bubbles. He doesn't want to rely on pure faith. He wants to see for himself. A spray of black crystals floats just in reach, and he drops his mitts so that he can grab the bubble between his hands. He doesn't pop it immediately, but he does turn to look back at Yang.]
How can you know that this is what is best for someone when you've never had to live it yourself?
[There is some part of him that knows that it's unfair to level that kind of condescension on someone as young as her, but the newly formed gem has gone through a serious upheaval, and he's feeling defensive, unsure. Deeply offended by the concept of what he's become. A jailer? Is that his new life now?]
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That said, she really doesn't appreciate the sudden condescension. Especially not when she's been here for a year and a half longer than him, and especially especially not when she's been trying to be helpful. If he wants to be paranoid and not take her or the Heart Gem at their word, that's fine with her, but the implication that he has a better idea than her of what's going on is irritating to say the least.
While her guard isn't up yet, she visibly tenses when he grabs that bubble from among those in the chamber. She's definitely no longer smiling and her tone is low and terse when she speaks.]
It's the only way to keep them safe until we can figure out a way to heal them.
And it's better than letting them hurt innocent people.
[It's not a matter of what's "best". It's that they don't have any other options.]
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Instead, he cradles the bubble in the crook of one massive arm, frowning still but visibly trying to let some of his initial anger go.]
What's your name, girl?
[If she's so bent on healing these things--these people, maybe--at least her heart's in the right place. Perhaps she's just been fed a line that makes her think she's doing better work to imprison someone for their condition than she really is. It's worth reaching out for, maybe.]
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I've got several.
Which one you end up with depends on whether or not you put that Gem back.
[She doesn't know which Gem monster is inside that thing and she'd rather not find out right now.]
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No. You want to keep these locked up, you need to give them the choice, first.
[He pauses, sensing her complete disgust.]
Any self-respecting monster who has to choose between harming innocent people and locking himself away would make the right choice. But you, your kind. You don't give that option, do you?
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What part of, "They're a danger to themselves and others," are you not getting?
They can't choose. They don't realize what they're doing!
I'm so sorry for this megapost update, holy fricklefracks
[Boyce's grip tightens. The bubble strains.]
You're young. You don't understand. This, [he gestures to the bubble in his hands, the serene chunk of glittering black rock completely inert within] this isn't a kindness.
[And of course in his fervent bid to make her understand, he applies a little bit too much pressure.
The gem falls to the ground with a clatter, and Boyce, despite himself, holds his breath. Nothing happens immediately, but that shouldn't be surprising to a seasoned gem. Boyce is not, so of course he leans down to pick the freed gem up.
Just as he's about to touch it, a blinding light forms around it, shaking and shivering with the corruption that twists it out of form. The force of its reforming pushes even the big man back, off of his feet, and Boyce skids back a foot or two as a monstrous bird thing rears up. At first its eyes are clenched tightly shut, but opening them all in quick succession, it gives an undulating croak as it fastens its gaze on the gem that freed it.
Boyce's version of kindness is met with a swift, sudden strike, and he's suddenly very well preoccupied with a beak that had just missed a killing stab, which he's now wrapped his heavy arms around.
This leaves the whipping tail of the monster facing Yang, along with the gem mounted near the tail's base like a second spray of crystal feathers. The beast's flapping and noisy squawking are disturbing the rest of the bubbles, which are being bounced around by stray strikes. Nothing is bursting--yet--but the situation has gone from tense and uncomfortable to much-too-dangerous in all of a heart-beat.
And it's clear that even if Boyce seems to have a surface understanding of what's going on here, he has no clue how to comport himself. He doesn't materialize a weapon of any kind. He's still stuck in his preconceived notions of what he can and can't do, and that would be to keep the bird beak on lock-down as he lets off a snarled curse or three.]
ROFL no this is great 8'D
[That's about all she manages to get out before the bubble bursts, releasing the gem inside.
Teeth grit, Yang stays where she is, but the golden bracelets around her wrist suddenly expand into a pair of metallic gauntlets, a barely visible glow emanating from the area of her yellow midriff.
Even so, she's just barely prepared for the monster that emerges from it, shielding her face with her now-armored forearms, her boots digging shallow trenches into the ground as the energy radiating off it collides against her. And when she finally gets a good look at the thing, she only has one thing to say.]
Damn it!
[She should've punched this guy in the face the minute he started reaching for a bubble, this is what happens when she's nice about stuff.
She also has about a moment's heads up before that tail comes whipping towards her, throwing herself out of the way and rolling back onto her feet.
There's a brief glance spared towards the other bubbled gems as well as the Heart Gem because shit this is not good before her gaze zeroes in on Boyce struggling with the business end of the monster's beak.
Ducking under another swipe from the monster's tail, she cocks a fist back and then punches it forward. With a bang like a shotgun, a firework-like flare rockets out of a muzzle set inside the armored edge of her gauntlet, whizzing across the room and exploding against the back of the bird's head as Yang screams at it.]
OVER HERE BIRD BRAIN.
:>
The bird brain squawks and reefs hard on Boyce's grip, pulling the man upright and shaking him bodily. It's almost twice his not insignificant height, and bigger overall.
Turning in one jagged, sharp motion, it hisses at Yang and flaps its wings. The down, previously floating airily around them, forms shadow slivers that sing down on the girl's position. Death by a thousand cuts, or perhaps one thousand cuts and a razor sharp beak.
Boyce is not completely helpless, at least. With the bird preoccupied, he regains his feet and charges back into the milieu. He grabs the tail and yanks as it surges at the girl, halting it before it can get its beak around her. If he's bleeding from incidental nicks of feather-slivers, it's because his body still very much believes it can be damaged... even if what comes out is an oddly silver fluid.]
Don't hurt it!
[It's an odd request, and downright foolish, but Boyce isn't ready to believe that this is a terrible idea.]
THE NOISE I MADE AT THAT ICON
I promise to try to keep its use to a minimum
it's amazing XD
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