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

[She gets a shy smile in return.] You're from the city, too? This town is definitely a lot smaller than I'm used to, and I haven't been on a real farm. Poppa -- my grandfather -- owned a peanut farm, though, a long time ago.

"We~ll, I was at the Far East Branch before I got here? But yeah, this town's not what I'm used to either!"

Sort of waving her hands around.

"It's so...sprawling! There's actually spaces between the houses, how cool is that? Oh yeah, I'm Jazz!"

[She lights up.] I'm Melody! I've never heard of the Far East Branch -- is that another future thing? I'm still getting used to all the food costing so much. Where I came from, two dozen oranges were about eighty cents, and we didn't grow them right there like they do here. But we'll have to make it work!

"Yeah! Hey, do you think they have corn here? Old man Gen told me once that you could hold an entire cob of old corn with just one hand!"

...oh, wait, future thing?

"And, maybe it's a future thing? I dunno, what year is it for you?"

1963! But somebody said it was 2016 here, and everything just looks so different. The cars, the machines... Wait, corn? I'm not sure if it grows here, but if it doesn't, maybe the supermarket's got some! We had plenty at home.

"Oh, wow...and it can really fit in your hand? The corn we get as rations is huuuuge! One kernel is like this!"

Jazz holds her hands up to her head to indicate the size.

"It's 2074 where I'm from!"

Wow! [She puts her hands up to her face.] How would they even grow corn that size? The fields would have to have something to hold up the stalks!

"Oh, we don't have fields, anyone who goes outside the walls gets eaten. It's grown in these big greenhouses!"

...you are being entirely too casual about that 'eaten' thing, Jazz.

What-- eaten? By monsters, like the ones here?

[I wish I had fitting icons, but all the official art for the books is smiling. Maybe when the movie comes out.]

Nod nod.

"Yeah! They've basically eaten most of the world. My job is to stab 'em in the face!"

Still being waayyyy too cheerful about this, Jazz.

[Gasp.] How would something like that exist? Does your world have Gems, too? Or was it some kind of experiment, like by the Russians?

"Oh! They covered this in basic, I think..."

Jazz places her index fingers to her temples and mutters 'think! think!' to herself for a little bit.

"They just showed up back in 2050! They could eat anything, and, y'know, did. Apparently there used to be, like...seven continents before they ate one?"

There are! Uh, were? Are? How could something like that just happen out of nowhere?

SHRUG.

"I dunno, I leave the thinky stuff to Ciel."

That can't just happen anywhere, can it? I mean, we'd know if there were really aliens or something like that!

Blink blink.

"I dunno? I don't really think about things more complicated than fighting giant monsters."

I guess we all have to do our part somehow... This place's monsters look a little different from what you're saying, anyway.

Nod nod nod.

"Yeah, I know! And they don't even eat the buildings!"

You can still fight them, right? I don't even know what I can do.

Pause.

"Well, just because that rock thingy brought you here, it doesn't mean you have to stand on the front lines. 'They also serve who only wait and pray.' There's an entire chain of logistics that people like me need in place in order to do our jobs, you know? Even if it's something really simple, like helping serve soup after a mission, it's important, because we need a reason to make it back."

This kind of thing falls under the label of 'troop morale' and is therefore associated with 'stabbing monsters', so Jazz actually does think about it.

You mean like trying to improve the neighbourhood? Helping people out who need it, even if you're just ordinary?

"Yeah! You got it!"

I think I can make that work! Mommy always said even small things can help make it better for everyone.

Test Drive Meme | August-September 2016

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject