TEST DRIVE MEME

[wearethecrystalmods]

Hello and welcome to the COSMOGRAPHIA TEST DRIVE MEME! This is a place where you can get a feel for your character(s) in the game's setting! A couple quick points before we get down to business:

☆ Please take a look at our Premise, World Information, and our FAQ to get a feel for the rules and setting. This is great if you want to see what the game is about before jumping in!

☆ Test Drive threads are certainly allowed to be used for samples for your application, should you choose to submit one!

SAMPLE SCENARIOS:

A: By whatever means, you've tumbled through a hole into a cavernous temple. Gems suspended in bubbles float about the ceiling, and a large Heartlike gem looms before you. Touching it, whether out of curiosity or frustration, will give you some basic information, 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?

B: It's Thursday in Waverly Bay, and that can mean only one thing: the weekly Farmer's Market is here again! 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! 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.

C: Uh-oh! Looks like you've run into a monster! 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 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!

Comments

Malachite || Steven Universe AU || Uh ...malachite..

[nomorechains]

[A]
[Malachite knows she's somewhere else as soon as consciousness returns. The smell of the sea is gone, the continuous feel of the ocean tides gone, leaving her feeling unsteady as she carefully rises to all fours, fingers splayed against the ground as if to help hold her in place. Perspective is ... different, and the proximity of bubbled gems and their size tells her she's much, much smaller than she's used to.

Instead of immediately looking for an exit, the green and white fusion begins a careful examination of herself, running her fingers across the gem-shard nose in the middle of her face, then twisting so one leg-arm can likewise brush across the gem between her upper shoulder blades.

Checking for damage. Cracks, chips. She knows what bubbling is, what it's for, and why she might be there - had she been broken? Corrupted?

...No. Only once she's assured of her own current physical state does she even begin to look around, seeking an exit instead of explanations. Out. She needed out.]

[B]
[Outside has been achieved! And the disorienting change of perspective is immediate and apparent now. Malachite was used to being several stories tall, now she guessed her height at most might match Jasper's, perhaps a little taller. It means she can pick her way through Waverly Bay's market crowd without worrying about squashing the fleshlings and assorted other .. gems? Gems, like they belonged here, living with these meatsacks!

And somehow, the centauroid fusion isn't any stranger than many other things these people have seen, by the general lack of reaction. That's almost a relief. But the presence of produce, grown locally or otherwise, does bring something else to mind. The crisp taste of tribute by a cowering island tribe, now just a sweet memory on the back of her tongue.]

You!

[It's the first time she's speaking up in public, accosting the first person who looks reasonably intelligent AND likely to answer her instead of panic, run away or attack. You'll do. Yes, you.]

Which of these ... shops ... carries watermelon?

B

[scarlet_devil]

[ Compared to a lot of gems here, Remilia kind of stands out with her batlike wings, pale skin and crimson eyes. Other than that, though, she's fairly normal in size... Well, she'd like to be taller than five feet, but still.

And she's slightly annoyed. ]

You're ruder than the shrine maiden back home. Haven't you heard of manners?

[nomorechains]

[Normal size means small. Small and insignificant and not even remotely a threat at first assessment, the gem noted at her collar and giving a small +1 to her benefit.

Not a meat sack, surely (boy are all these hybrids going to be a shock). Though those wings were strange, was this Bloodstone or Heliotrope corrupted? For a long, long moment the considerably larger gem stares down at Remilia, all four eyes unblinking, mulling this shrine maiden nonsense and ultimately dismissing it.]

When you outrank me, I'll be polite. Answer the question or get out of my way.

[scarlet_devil]

Try looking.

[ There was a shop stall or two she knew had watermelons in stock. Anyway, she floats up to eyeheight. Malachite was, what, 8 feet tall?

In any case, now she was going to be a brat about everything. ]

[nomorechains]

[Something like that. Not the building-tall monstrosity she's used to being, that's for sure. Much more manageable and likely to fit through doors and inside buildings!

But being floated at isn't anything that registers as intimidating to the green gem, and snide commentary only draws a narrowing of her eyes and a brief curl of her lips to show sharp teeth.]

Figures. More useless dreck on this pathetic waste of a planet.

[And ... dismissal. Complete and utter dismissal, as Malachite turns her backs on Remilia; there were no watermelons that she'd seen or found. Some deformed round things, but those weren't watermelons, watermelons had limbs and eyes and could run and scream.

There is nothing like what she's looking for around here.]

B

[moonfang]

Ha...? [The strange white humanoid points to himself. He has a carton of fresh eggs that he's been snacking on as he walks around, completely oblivious to (or not giving a shit about) the strange looks he gets when he eats them, shell and all] How the heck should I know? Do I look like I eat plants?

[nomorechains]

[...As far as Malachite is concerned, yes. Yes he does look like he eats plants. Look he has a plant in his hands RIGHT NOW.

At least he didn't look like he was human. She wasn't exactly certain, but she didn't recall humans ever being stark white. Maybe she'd just missed some in her brief tours of the Earth.]

What do you think that is?

[The eggs are pointed to accusingly. That is clearly something that grows on a vine.]

But eating them when they can't move yet is a waste, you should wait.

[moonfang]

[um excuse u he does not eat plants he eats SOULS. Or at the very least, MEAT. And eggs were the only thing he'd managed to find here that fit that requirement.

He hasn't stumbled onto the fish market side of things, yet.

He looks at the egg then at her, then back to the egg. He holds it up]

This. This is an egg. It comes outta chickens, ya weirdo. And these particular ones ain't never gonna be real chickens!! They ain't fertilized. Besides, plants don't move.

[nomorechains]

[It's even seed shaped. She knows what she's talking about, she's gone through a lot of watermelons.]

It's a seed. Which comes out of something else, like all seeds do. Maybe if you planted it instead of eating it, you'd get a chicken!

[Her words are trending towards annoyed, expression darkening, arms crossed over her chest. Plants definitely move.]

The ones worth eating do. That's why I'm looking for watermelons. But this place only has these ... deformed oval things that just sit there, it's disgusting.

[Watermelons have heads and limbs.]

[moonfang]

... Well I guess it's... kinda like a seed. A seed fer animals. But instead of putting it in the ground, the momma chicken is supposed ta sit on it. And then it hatches into a baby chicken! But not this one. Like I said, it don't have the right stuff.

[Ladytaur, this is basic stuff. HOW CAN U NOT KNOW. Even HE knows, and he's been locked up inside a teenager for his whole life.

Wait. He squints]

Are you sayin' that somewhere out there, there's watermelons that move around? ... Do they run away when you try and eat 'em?

[nomorechains]

[The frown deepens. While it's possible that these weird earth creatures weren't ALL plants, she was exceedingly skeptical. That thing definitely looked like a seed and she knew what those were for, she spent weeks watching the watermelons grow more.

Confusion means it's a little harder to really build up a good amount of resentment or hostility at least. If Zangetsu's not paying attention or quick enough, he's going to find himself relieved of an egg courtesy of one of Malachite's many hands.

It's not eaten immediately, if she nicks one.]

Sometimes they put the seed under piles of dead plants, maybe it's like that but with chickens.

[And living chickens at that. This planet is so fucked up. The thought of proper watermelons however is enough to put aside chickens for now.]

Not always. Some try to fight back. The best tasting ones are the feistiest ones, it's how you can tell they're ready to eat. They used to just stand there and wait for it, but after a while they got the idea, and sometimes even try weapons now.

[And she sounds so utterly, completely serious about it too, there's no way she's joking. Right? ...Right? Then again that thin ribbon of drool is there for a reason. She liked her tributes, thank you.

Then again after that who could ever eat normal melon again.]

[moonfang]

Hey! [he grumbles, but doesn't make much of an effort to get it back. Let her keep thinking the egg is a weird seed, if she wants. She's not exactly wrong. And he has like... four more cartons. He grabs another one and puts the whole thing in his mouth, then crunches down]

.... Now I KNOW yer pullin' my leg, friend. But that sounds like TONS of fun! Fruit would be SO much more enjoyable if it put up a fight!

Screams forever

[lumpyspacegem]

What the-

[ One of the doors along the wall has opened revealing a familiar face]

...no way...

overcooked!!!

[nomorechains]

[There is a list in her head of the things she can deal with right now while desperately looking for an exit.

Crystal Gems are nowhere on that very short list. The now much smaller fusion draws herself up to her full still not inconsiderable height as Amethyst opens a door, gaze shifting only briefly to note that the rest of the Crystal Gems are NOT present.

Alexandrite part 2: Avoided!]

You.

[One finger is leveled.]

Where is this place? What are you doing to these gems!

[That's not the same voice Malachite used the last time they ran across each other. The double-echo is gone. Now it's just one voice. One stable voice.

Jasper and Lapis are gone.]

[lumpyspacegem]

[ OK well...that's better then what she was expecting which was frankly a punch in the face. And thank the stars she's smaller now. Summoning up her swag Amethyst enters the chamber slowly not yet reaching for her whip. She's learned her lesson about instantly attacking a familiar foe.]

Uh...sup Mal...welcome to Waverly Bay?

[ Smooth Amethyst. Let's try again.]

What gems? OH! Those guys? Yeah they're corrupted gems. We're bubbling them till we can heal them so they...ya know don't go all monster on us.

[nomorechains]

[A punch in the face is still possible, but frankly Malachite is expecting the other two (three) to pop out of nowhere at any moment and she's reserving her strength to try to tackle that firebreathing monstrosity again.

Amethyst on her own surely isn't much of a danger. Not to her anyway. So back to focusing on a way out before the rest show up.]

'Corrupted'.

[Oh boy is that the sound of intense suspicion.]

[lumpyspacegem]

[ It's funny how it's somehow more horrific to NOT hear both their voices in unison.]

Uh...yeah you know? Like when a Gem is damaged and tries to reform but can't?

Wait haven't you heard of them before?

[nomorechains]

[At least when there were still two voices there were still two people. Now there's just one intensely suspicious, albeit shrunk, bad-tempered fusion instead. At least one can guess what Jasper or Lapis might do.]

I've seen damaged gems. None of them qualified as 'monsters'.

[The sorts of things that happen on Earth? Nope. Never once. She's as close to a horrible monstrous abomination as anything she'd ever seen. Maybe she should puncture a bubble and find out for herself.

Maybe she should get out while she can.]

These look whole, they're not fusion experiments.

[lumpyspacegem]

Well yeah, who do I look like Peridot?

[Aw that's not fair. Peridot learned her mistakes...more or less.]

Anyway listen we can deal with that in a minute. That big gem there? That's the Crystal heart! If you touch it, it'll give you the basics and we can...go from there I guess.

We're on the same team now green bean.

Re: Malachite || Steven Universe AU || Uh ...malachite..

[connie_maheswaran]

Uhh?!

[ok, who was this? It was a gem, but she looked like an actual GEM, not just someone turned into one.

Wait a minute...]

Are you...a fusion?

oh goodness it's a small human hatchling

[nomorechains]

[Malachite is all gem, baby! Two of them even, which is more noticeable when she actually turns to look at the person who'd unexpectedly spoken up. Gem in front, gem in back.

Yep, fusion.]

... Yes.

[And that! That is a tiny human. Small, fragile, helpless, not a threat and thus not appropriate to just squash for being there.]

And you are a human. Where is this place? How did I get here?

[That's not QUITE a demand, Malachite's actually struggling to not simply snap at the little brown being, but anything like politeness is really REALLY HARD.]

Re: oh goodness it's a small human hatchling

[connie_maheswaran]

I am. Sort of.

Are you from homeworld? From what Steven told me, they don't usually fuse like this, do you?

[Wait a minute. Something was clicking on her head. That day with Steven and the back eye. But no, wait, that was impossible. That gem was supposed to be huge, right]?

[nomorechains]

Clearly I do.

[That response is an annoyed rasp, a frown crossing her face. So what if she wasn't a typical fusion?

She's still Jasper-sized at least; sure one of her component gems had bashed the little Rose Quartz in the face and knocked him out but that was before Malachite existed. Somehow the Homeworld question seems to get missed ... or ignored.]

You have any more prying questions, meat?

[connie_maheswaran]

I guess that's true.

Well, besides me preferring you don't call me meat, why are you looking for fruit?

[nomorechains]

Because none of this fruit- [A finger is jabbed accusingly at a nearby canteloupe.] -moves. It's not even ripe yet.

[But it didn't answer her other questions. OR her desire for a watermelon that can fight back.]