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

And what do you intend to do when I do come over there then? [Be Wary, he had said, after all. Run if you see someone with a stone like 'yours'.

It is hardly another idocrase stone, but a gem is a gem, and that warning peals through her ears regardless of how friendly Carnelian seems.]

I'm not going to hurt you. If you're here then you're an ally, we don't hurt our own. We'd never get anywhere if we did.

[She doesn't seem like she intends harm, but she is big, she does look strong, and could be easily seen as pretty intimidating.]

[Very big. Very intimidating. Masumi is already mentally noting as many ways to bolt for those hallways as she can, if need be.

...But, with a suspicious frown, she approaches all the same, gem shining dully as she steps near.]

[And it's with the carefulness of someone who's handled very fragile things before that Carnelian reaches out to touch. First the gem at Masum's throat, then one wrist easily dwarfed by her large hands, turning it over to examine the paler underside. Her grip, in spite of being a rock projecting a hologram, is warm.

Unless prevented, her cautious examination will continue, circling Masumi once at the unsteady pace of someone unsure of their footing still, picking briefly at her clothing, her hair. Eventually she lets go entirely.]

Hm. Well. If you're human, you're very strange for one, and if you're a gem, you're not a type I've seen before. But given your lack of that beat under the skin that humans have, I'm going to go with you being a new sort of gem. Which means this.. isn't something you have.

[Another delicate touch to the green gem.]

This IS you. The rest of this.. all of it, that's just something you wear to interact with all of the world. The gem is you. Your 'mind', your .. uh. ... 'Soul', I think the word is. Bodies can break, you'll be fine. But your gem, it breaks, you break.

[She holds her breath, or the illusion of it. Holds it nervously, her eyes careful to keep Carnelian in the corners of her vision. There is an uneasy swallow, and she keeps her mouth shut.

At least until it occurs to her what 'that beat' refers to. Her thoughts churn, internal constructs practically bursting in demand to fill the void that came of an absent mind, to replace the sound of blood rushing behind her ears where it had not been there before, drowning out Carnelian's words as the girl forces her own forward.]

What do you mean lack of a beat..?

You can usually feel it, on organics. About here.

[She rests her palm against her own wrist, but she has no heart TO beat, of course she has no pulse either.]

You look so much like one otherwise that it's astonishing. Your colors don't match your gem at all.

[That's not possible that's not possible that's not-

Her hands fly to her throat, feeling for the usual pulse and beat as she breathes rapidly, not even attempting to hide her fear.] That's not supposed to happen... [she starts, her voice breaking.] It's supposed-

I've always had a heart beat..!

Hey, hey!

[She holds her hands up, startled. This wasn't right at all! Why was any of this worth freaking out about? It wasn't that bad!]

Easy there! Nothing's wrong, this is how we all are!

How 'we' are?! [She repeats, wrenching her hands from her neck before it makes things worse.] I've lived long enough to know how my body works..! And it cuts..! It has a pulse..!

They're not things that humans lack..!

Well.. maybe you're not human. Maybe you're a gem, like me, and the rest of us.

[Wow, this is weird. She wasn't good at things like tact but she was going to try.]

And maybe you decided without really thinking about it, to be a little different now. It happens sometimes.

[....That way of thinking is so horrendously off the wall that it actually manages to calm her down.

If only so she can stare, frown, and judge.]

...That's not how being human works. I have parents-a parent-you know.

[She's never even SEEN a picture of her mother now that she thinks of it.]

[By that blank look she really doesn't know. The word doesn't come up often.]

Do you mean that whole.. coming out of another human thing?

....

...We'll put it like that, yes.

[Bear with her here, because this is still a pretty foregin concept. Carnelian's not stupid, but human reproduction doesn't come up often. She rubs the side of her head, frowning.]

But isn't that basically another hole?

Edited 2016-08-22 02:03 (UTC)

[oh

oh god

Masumi's only clear response is to slowly feel herself growing absolutely beet red, choking on her words.]

That's not the same at all..!!!

Sounds like it is! So there's no point in getting too upset about it, right?

[Really it's all the same thing, obviously.]

Even if things got changed a little bit, you're still you.

[And change is how it goes for gems, at least physically. A tweak here, a change there, suddenly a skirt for the next few hundred years instead of shorts, what's the big deal?]

How is it anything like that..?! Humans come from two people, it's not the same as just...sprouting out of the ground! [she insists, biting back a few more words.] ...Just a few moments ago, you didn't even know if this stone was part of me, because I said I was 'human'..!

Those sorts of things... [She fumbles, tongue tied and struggling with what can and cannot be said aloud.] A heart-rate..!

Those aren't little things that just change! Coming here shouldn't change something like that..!

Test Drive Meme | August-September 2016

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