crystalclods | Test Drive Meme | August-September 2016


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 the Gem Observatory. From the sounds of things, there's an ancient relic here somewhere that could serve useful for the Gems in the Temple and someone has to go out and find it. ... the only problem is that you're not exactly sure where you should start looking in this place. And on top of that, it's a complete mess. Junk and debris and books and papers everywhere with no clue where this relic could be. You're going to have to do some serious digging to find this thing. And on top of that, you might find that when you try to go back the warp pad you took here has managed to stop working in between your arrival and now. Maybe something went wrong back in the control room? Or the pad itself needs fixing? You'll have to poke around in the guts of the machine to try and figure this one out.
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! Loud noises make it lash out in agitation. Even when it's not attacking, it flies around restlessly, shedding sharp, glasslike scales that can leave nasty cuts as they whiz past. It'll be hard to get close to it unless it's lured down out of the sky. *Chameleoid* - The shape of this monster's body is more like a tardigrade than a lizard, but its camouflage ability and long, sticky tongue are worth commemorating. The Chameleoid can flatten and expand its body, and change the color and texture of its outer hide to blend in seamlessly with its surroundings, and it uses this ability to duck in and out of battle. Keep an eye out for suspicious movement when it vanishes from view. The Chameleoid shoots out its 20-foot-long tongue to disarm, trip up, and gross out Gems, but it's not averse to eating any small objects it might grab. The inside of its mouth looks softer than the rest of it, so maybe you can turn that to your advantage...? *Strawberry Spider* - Though its long, spindly legs holding it off the ground make it look like a spider, this monster is actually mostly made up of plant material. Trees and strawberry plants are rooted in the corrupted Gem's featureless, geometric body, forming woody legs and blanketing the monster in foliage and strawberries. Its aroma may be sweet, but the Strawberry Spider is ruthless and very, very perturbed. It stands 15 feet tall and 25 feet wide, and its skittering feet move fast to stomp on attacking Gems. Thinking of cutting off a leg? Try it, and hundreds of strawberry runners will immediately sprout from the stump to ensnare you. The strawberries are hungry, and they've got a "taste for blood"... Damaging the plants living on it won't actually hurt the corrupted Gem, and they grow back fast. This will be a tough monster to defeat. *Wildcard Option* - Make your own! 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A Gem.

He was... a gem? Souji's free hand moved, touching around his body to--

There-- just over where his collar bone should be was a smooth feeling stone. Touching it felt strange, like when he was mentally centering on the core of himself--

But those thoughts only stayed so long when he heard something-- jump? What?

Looking around and pulling his hand back away from the crystal; left, right, nothing, but above--

"Uh..." Wow, that was... was it another gem, or some other creature? It definitely didn't look like a shadow, or any animal he knew of--

"Hey there." He lifted his hands, trying to show he didn't have anything on him or mean any harm to whatever it was.

..Well actually, it kind of looked like a cat...

Well, that answered two questions. One, that the human wasn't going to be an immediate threat. Two...that they didn't have a trainer's instincts. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending.

Mewtwo's tail swishes. If there was ever a time to communicate with a stranger - but then its eyes widen a little, and it glances aside, looking irritated. No telepathy. That makes sense.

So, instead, it pulls itself up more securely onto the top of the Heart and sits up straight. There's a gem in the center of its stomach, a lavender-pinkish kunzite. Mewtwo looks Souji straight in the eye, then tilts its head slightly and points to the human's gem.

...It hopes the human not being a trainer won't get too much in the way of them understanding.]

Look, kitty, Souji just got here and has barely awakened to his powers in his own world, let alone---W-waverly Bay, right? He's barely a threat to anyone.

Something that sticks out is that...big, shiny stone in the middle of the creatures stomach. And then the pointing, at his...?

Souji's eyes trail back to his own stone-- some sort of opal is his best guess, white with flecks of every possible colour, before looking back up at the creature.

"You're a Gem too, huh?" But, this thing was clearly not human, the way it's tail and body was structured, "...Were you human before?"

It seemed to understand him... might as well ask. WHo knows, maybe he'd turn into something like this guy himself.

...What?

Mewtwo wrinkles its nose in bewilderment and blinks sharply. No, what? Where the hell did that idea come from? That...is a weird question to ask. It's not sure what to make of that question, or the boy who asked it.

While thinking, it glances up past Souji to the hole he came out of, then down to the Heart, then briefly to the exit. Its tail lashes. Then it - deliberately, this time, with a quick look at Souji to make sure he's watching - presses its hands to the Heart, closes its eyes and bows its head.

The Heart rouses strange emotions in Mewtwo. Maybe, if the human feels the same way, they'll better understand each other's immediate intentions. Maybe he'll recognize the trepidation Mewtwo feels at the thought of leaving, and they can find a way out of here together.

May...be.

Edited 2016-08-21 02:19 (UTC)

Look he doesn't get how Gem's really work yet. How's he supposed to know that HE won't turn into whatever this cat guy was?

"Okay, not a human."

But it seems to understand human speech, at least, Souji lowering his hands as he watched the creature's look.

"Sorry, I just... haven't seen anything quite like you before. And I don't know what other gems look like."

Honestly, the creature sort of reminded him of what something like Teddie combo'd with someone's Persona would look like. Intimidating, but still... cute?

But, the creature seemed to be trying to pass something onto him-- so he copied the creature, pressing both his hands to the heart and closing his eyes.

... Once upon a time, he would have questioned why a place he'd never been to felt like home. His second time in Inaba however, arriving at the Dojima's with an intense sense of Deja vu, told him it was possible. This place felt comfortable, but that positioned with being unfamiliar left him for the time ill at ease.

Pulling his hands away again, he looked up at the creature.

"Well... if we're both new, maybe we should try looking for someone who's not new? Ask them some more questions?"

The weirdness of being around a person who apparently cannot identify a Pokemon on sight has Mewtwo expecting an utter failure to communicate. He can see that the human is about as lost as it is, and that they're not really afraid of Mewtwo, of all the many things that could mean. But other than that...it doesn't know what to make of this.

But then the human gets it more or less spot on, and Mewtwo looks satisfied, tension lifting away from it and its tail swishing gently. It nods, just to make sure it's understood, and jumps to the ground.

The first thing it does after standing back up is peer down its muzzle to give Souji a closer look over. Then it takes a few steps towards the door, looking over its shoulder to be sure the boy is coming.

...It doesn't really want to be at the front of the pack.

The Cat thing sort of looks like a knock off monster from one of those COMPboy games he used to play as a kid, really. He liked that game, he should pick it up the new version sometime...

Souji jumped a touch as the creature landed, and then... wow. Normal Cat stares have nothing on this guy, and yet the young man had to clench his hand shut. No, just because it looks fuzzy doesn't mean he should pet it.

But it started towards the door, and turning back to look, clearly giving Souji the sign to follow. So... What else was there to do?

"Alright, let's see..."

Where would the other Gems be? Ah, wait--

"Oh... right. I'm Souji Seta, by the way."

Names might not matter to the creature, but hey, it clearly understood him at least.

The kind of mystery that this human is isn't quite the kind that would make Mewtwo want to hold onto his name for deeper investigation, but...it's appreciated anyways. A little bit. It's a thing for humans, right. Mewtwo will remember it.

It looks at Souji and gives him a long nod, closing its eyes, to show it heard him.

As they start up the tunnel, Mewtwo keeps pace with Souji, neither trying to take the lead nor trying to give the human the lead. It becomes tense again as soon as the Heart room is out of sight, glancing back and forth constantly, and to Souji more than once to see how he's reacting to the situation.

Souji, meanwhile was looking around more thoughtfully, trying to spot any other 'Gem's that could be around. What he did note, however...

"Huh. A lot of these doors have random gem stones on them-- did you notice that?"

If they were pulled here and asked to help, he didn't expect many of the occupants to be hostile. But even so, better both him and this creature, being? work together than be on their own, huh?

...Yeah. That is odd, isn't it? Mewtwo recognizes some of these, if not by name...

....

...hang on.

It stops, and touches one. This one kind of looks like...

Mewtwo cranes his head to look at Souji's gem.

Test Drive Meme | August-September 2016

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...actually there's no reason to smalltext if there isn't going to be any dialogue, huh

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